Jaune of Cainhurst
by warhammer651
Summary: Jaune spent most of his life around his family, and their servants. The outside world was fairly unknown to him, but blending in couldn't be that difficult, right?
1. Chapter 1-Typical Morning

Jaune slept. As dawn broke over the dense, endless forest, he continued to sleep the sleep of one without worries, stirred only slightly by a brief chill in his shoulder. Curling deeper into the covers of his warm, soft bed, he was roused a little more when the chill returned. He was about to drift fully back into the night's dreams when his peaceful rest was shattered by an unearthly screech a few inches away from his ear.

Picking himself up from the spot on the floor where his panicked thrashing had thrown him, Jaune shot an irritated glare into the eyes of the ghostly woman standing on the other side of the bed.

"That was completely uncalled for."

The ghost raised her severed head to chest level, eyes narrowed slightly in a combination of exasperation and amusement. Jaune felt, more than heard, her speak, a slight scratching sensation at the base of his skull and just behind his ears. His mother had told the servants to let him sleep in a bit, but his presence was still expected at the breakfast table. At his leisure.

Which really meant right now, barring hygiene. Still, letting him sleep in was a bit unusual. Probably thanks to his birthday yesterday, but appreciated none the less.

"Right, I'll be down in a bit."

The spirit inclined her head in acknowledgement and backed out the door as Jaune stepped over to the open wardrobe. He peeled off his pajamas (the one-piece was surprisingly comfortable, despite its appearance) and donned a well-cut black shirt and a pair of loose brown pants. He gave himself a quick once-over in the mirror across the room. Tall, slightly lanky, and topped off by an unruly mop of blonde hair that was still in open revolt from being woken up. A few strokes of a brush quelled the worst of the riot and he exited the room looking much more human than he had on waking.

Not for the first time, he cursed whichever of his ancestors had made the castle so damnably inconvenient to navigate (Albert the second if he remembered right). True, the place had originally been built by some long-forgotten kingdom to defend a now-irrelevant trade route, but did that really mean the main dining hall and kitchen had to be clear across the castle from their rooms? The mental assault on his ancestor's character redoubled as he opened a door and stepped out onto the battlements.

Giving a brief nod to the gargoyles on watch, he not-quite ran to the next tower, opening another door and descending the stairs down into one of the castle's smaller libraries. Kicking the door shut behind him, he caught sight of two of the castles few living, and still human, inhabitants. One was a small hunched-back old woman by the name of Friede who looked to be unsuccessfully trying to get his younger sister, Cerise, to read the thick tome in front of her. Cerise, for her part, seemed far more interested in the mug of hot coffee gripped tightly between her hands.

"'Morning" he grunted, more than said.

"Ah, good morning master Jaune!" Friede replied, looking up with a small wave and slight possibly-smile-maybe-grimace.

His sister merely grunted at him in a somewhat friendly, mostly asleep manner. She was never one for mornings.

Flipping a switch dropped a ladder, leading to another door into another corridor. He side-stepped a few more ghostly servants, and stood aside to let a few of the flea-like creatures his family used to tend the gardens pass by, nodding to them as they went. Another switch summoned an elevator, which opened into the courtyard proper, and a brief sprint through the biting cold brought him into the castle foyer, where a quick climb up some stairs delivered him into the castle dining room. His other siblings had already eaten, apparently, and their dishes had been cleared away along with much of what was left of breakfast.

At the head of one of the tables sat his mother, apparently still whittling away at a small portion of eggs and sipping at half-drained glass of a red drink, as she looked over some papers. As he sat at one of the places that hadn't been cleared out, his mother shifted her gaze from the stack to him, her eyes hidden by her mask, but an amused smile still visible where the lower half of it had been torn away.

"Didst thou have a pleasant slumber?" she asked as one of the servants piled some bacon and toast on to Jaune's plate. He grunted an affirmative back to her as he ate.

"And the gift we have imparted to you? Doth it mean thine expectations?"

Jaune nodded. "It is a good blade, though a little awkward to use. The shield throws me off balance, actually, but the blade cuts pretty goo-well." If his mother noticed his slip, she didn't show it.

"It is a different style from the reiterpallasch, but the master of arms assures us it will suit you better. If you wish, your training will be-" _WHAM._

Jaune started as the door slammed open, letting in a biting gust of the outside air, and whipped his head around to look at the intruder, his hand darting for a blade that wasn't there. He relaxed somewhat when he saw it was his older sister, Argent, apparently back from whatever hunt their mother had sent her on. He started to call to her, than gaped at her when he realized her normally grey-and-red coat had been splattered in far, far more blood than could conceivably be healthy.

His mother proved far less surprised by the sudden interruption "Argent. You are late."

Argent shrugged, moseying over to the breakfast table and waving one of the servants over "Yeah, well, that little job you gave me took a bit longer than I'd have liked. Those grimm can be-"

"You are also bleeding on our furniture"

Argent blinked. Once. Twice. "Huh? Oh, don't worry it's not mine."

"It is still on our floor. And our chairs."

"Right, right, I'll get changed right after-" Argent froze as the temperature of the room dropped. Jaune did too, for that matter. They couldn't see their mother's face, but some deep instinct told them that their mother was not happy with this turn of events.

"You will return to thine room. Then thou shalt don proper dress, and THEN thou willst return for thine breakfast."

Meekly, Argent bowed and left the room, a good deal more quietly then she had entered. A few awkward minutes passed, Annalise continuing to look over her stack of papers and Jaune poking at the remains of his breakfast, before Argent returned, now dressed in clothes similar to Jaune's-though a keen eye could see where armor and padding had been sewn into them.

"So, uh, what happened?" Jaune asked her as she sat beside him.

"Yeah, so you remember that grimm horde mom got concerned about a few weeks back?" She asked, as she started piling her plate with food.

Jaune nodded. "Yeah, kind of weird they got so close to the castle. Mom-er Mother said you were going to, uh, drive them off?"

Argent nodded, downing a mouthful of wine "Right, so it turns out that grimm are sneaky. Like, weirdly sneaky. Took a few gargoyles, couple of lickers, but by the time we got there they had already cleared out."

She paused to shovel more food into her mouth, ignoring their mother's slight tisking at her table manners "Now, we can't have them thinking they can get so close to the walls and make it out. The older ones, the smarter ones, might figure they could actually do some damage. So-" another swig of diluted wine "We start off after them. Not really that difficult to track since, you know.." she made a sort of waving motion with her hand "Grimm. So we're tracking them for a few days, and it turns out they had doubled back and were heading for the castle again. You know that little pond outside? Bit of a walk from the southern bridge?"

Jaune nodded, "Yeah, where Sam and… uh… that hunter guy she was dating-"

"Yeah, that's the spot. We ran into them there. There was a fight, i mean, but you know how that whole song and dance goes."

Jaune suppressed a sigh. For all that his sister was a good hunter, she always glossed over the interesting parts of her stories.

"And what caused thee to track blood on our seats?" their mother asked from the head of the table.

"Oh that, uh…" Argent rubbed the back of her head, having the good grace to at least appear somewhat sheepish. Not that would help when their mother couldn't exactly see to begin with. "One of the lickers got ambushed by a 'stalker. Literally torn apart and, uh, I was standing next to it. And I was kind of hungry by the time I got back so… my bad?"

Annalise quietly brought her cup to her lips and drank, still radiating disapproval, but slightly less so now. "I see. And the other matter?"

"What other-Oh yeah that. I'm still good for it. We can do it right after this", Argent replied, shoveling the few remains of her breakfast into her mouth and ignoring another tisk from her mother.

Jaune glanced between them, slightly confused "I'm sorry, uh, what other thing?"

Argent looked to her mother for approval. Getting a small nod, she continued "Well, you're seventeen now, you got your first real weapon, but it's still suicide to try hunting without an aura. So, we're going to fix that. Right about now, actually. Grab your coat and follow me."

Jaune did not leap out of his chair in excitement. That would have required both feet to leave the ground. Instead, he briskly got to his feet, calmly and efficiently collected his sword and shield, Crocea Mons, and donned his coat. That he had to wait for his sister to catch up was just a sign of how tired she was from her hunt. The wry smile on his mother's chin was clearly just a sign of pride at his efficiency and was not, in fact, hiding an undignified giggle at her son's enthusiasm. Obviously.

They started off down another series of winding corridors, and, though annoying, they were failing to put any sort of damper on Jaune's mood. A few rooms, a pair of elevators and a flight of stairs later, the three stepped out into one of the castle's subterranean training rooms, a large circular chamber, 20 meters across and carved wholesale from the surrounding rock. As Juane and Argent made their way to the center of the chamber, their mother broke off to sit on one of the low stone benches around the chamber's perimeter.

"So" Argent began, "This is gonna feel a bit weird, since we're not just activating your aura. Our family is a little bit weird, by the standards of the rest of the world, and our rituals work a bit different. Short version is our semblance-"

"Not a lot of aura, we can beat people-or grimm- up to recharge our aura, drink blood for rapid healing, I HAVE been doing my homework, sister," Jaune interrupted.

Argent gave him sheepish smile, a genuine one this time "Just the tradition, you know how it is. Anyways, you'll need to run this over your palm. It'll sting a bit, but we'll fix it right after" she said, pulling the long, thin dirk from its sheath on her hip and handing it to him.

Taking it, he drew a thin, shallow cut across his right palm. Handing it back to his sister, has as somewhat surprised when she did the same.

Argent winced as she drew the blade across her palm. It didn't especially hurt, at least compared to some of the other injuries she'd sustained over her career, but suppressing her aura enough to bleed was still damned uncomfortable. Returning the blade to its sheath, she clasped the hand her brother had cut in her own and grabbed his shoulder with her other hand.

"We were the first and we shall be the last," she began, gathering her aura in both hands.

"For immortality may only be won from blood shed in past." This part was tricky. First she pushed the aura from her left hand into her brother's shoulder.

"Those that once followed may now hold sway," Her eyes narrowed slightly, feeling more than seeing the aura she had released start to shift and change. She had to time this just right.

"but as for us-" Right about...now. She pushed the aura in her right hand out, forcing it from the cut on her hand and into Jaune's.

"-the good blood shall guide our way." Jaune glowed as his body took in the foreign energy, slowly settling, reshaping, and converting it to match his own. As his body slowly acclimatized to its new found power, the glow shifted from a gleaming white light to a pale red glow.

Argent released her grip and brought one hand up to massage her temples. Awakening someone else's aura wasn't difficult, but it was draining and a little disorienting. Her aura tended to get a bit rowdy afterwards, and calming it took a bit of effort and concentration.

"Right, we've gotten the tricky bit out of the way. Let your aura settle a little, and I'll give it a once over to make sure nothing went wrong."

"Do things, uh, go wrong very often?" Jaune asked, still somewhat overawed by the new-found sense of energy coursing through him, though he could tell it was starting to fade even now.

"Not really, and since you're not, you know, screaming, exploding, or writhing on the ground in agony it's probably fine. Better to check either way," She laid her hand on his shoulder again, sending out a brief-and much less potent- pulse of aura. She'd get a return pulse, and that would tell her how large his… Damn. That couldn't be right. Frowning slightly, she waited for the echo to fade and sent another pulse. Apparently that was right. Shit, that was a lot.

After a solid minute of silence, Jaune spoke up "Uh, sis? something wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, no, no not really" she said, withdrawing her hand just a touch too quickly. If Jaune noticed, he didn't react. "You've got some pretty big aura reserves there, actually. Like, even for a normal hunter those are pretty good reserves."

"And that's a good thing… right?" Jaune asked nervously, a look of slight apprehension writ across his feature.

"Yeah, yeah it is." Argent replied, managing to recompose herself "Heck, with that much aura you probably won't even need to worry about leeching it in a fight. Okay, draw your sword, take up a guard position. Right, angle the shield a little bit more. Sword and Board is gonna be a little bit different from what you're used to. You'll have to play things a bit more conservatively.."

Annalise watched as her eldest daughter started to run her only son through the basics of using Crocea Mons. She had been right, the more conservative fighting style suited him, even with his freshly augmented abilities. Those aura levels though…

The Cainhurst bloodline was a potent one, though what those who knew considered to be its main drawback, a miniscule amount of aura relative to any other hunter, was in truth a significant strength. While the rest of the world considered such things as magic or sorcery to be mere legends or tall tales, the Cainhurst hunters made use of a wide variety of charms, trinkets, and weapons that could be considered such, and whose operation were universally impaired by having too much aura.

Her frown deepened. It was such a shame too. Aura, when properly harnessed and trained, could be just as potent of a tool, but since all of her children were more typical of their bloodline there was no one that could train him to use his aura in such a way. Her frown relaxed somewhat. There was no one in Cainhurst that could teach him… but outside the castle, and beyond the lands it guarded?

Cainhurst, and by extension its inhabitants and subjects, was isolated, true, but that didn't mean she was without contacts in the outside world. Several of those contacts were highly placed, influential even. A letter would take time to reach them, true, and while it was unusual for a Cainhurst to train at one of the academies it wasn't unprecedented. True, she would likely need to trade some of her favors, and possibly part with some artefacts, but that was what they were there for. Either way, a polite request would cost her nothing.

/\/\/\/\

Ozpin sat at his desk, ignoring the veritable mountain of paperwork Glynda had piled atop it. It needed doing for the upcoming semester, but the letter that had arrived in his personal correspondence, on parchment paper no less, held his interest more. Idly, he thumbed the wax seal in the bottom corner, lost in thought. He'd made more mistakes in his life than he could count, but to this day he could never decide if letting that forsaken castle stand was one of them. Or if it was an investment that just hadn't paid off yet.

The request was intriguing, of course. Cainhurst was something of a rarity in the wilds of remnant, an isolated border outpost that nevertheless managed to produce hunters worthy of the title, but they were also notoriously close-lipped about their methods and techniques and rarely communicated with the outside world. To send any of their line out to study at an actual academy was unusual. He doubted it was truly unprecedented, but he couldn't remember the last time it had happened.

She wasn't asking him to accept her son out of the goodness of his heart, either. Cutting out the fluff, and reading between the lines showed she was willing to offer a fairly hefty not-quite-a-bribe. While he was sure Doctor Oobleck would be more than happy to examine the "curiosities" she'd mentioned, her other offer seemed more enticing, if risky.

Under normal circumstances, he would have simply waved off her concerns about security. Beacon was a hunter's academy after all, and only a fool would try anything untoward, but this last year had been troubling. Something was on the move, in the wild and untamed parts of remnant, and while he had his suspicions to the cause he had little ability to directly counter their maneuvers.

His thoughts drifted to the young girl, locked in a stasis case beneath the tower. That situation could be resolved, one way or another, within the year, but the truth was the only real security they had regarding the maiden was secrecy. If James' suspicions about the halves of that power attracting one another were correct, what little security that provided was severely compromised.

Coming to a decision, he dialed Glynda's scroll. She picked up after only a few rings.

"Headmaster?"

"Glynda, regarding this year's admissions, I'm going to need 3 more students."

"Three more?" her confusion was palpable for a few seconds "Please don't tell me-"

"Circumstances require me to accept one more. Teams must consist of four students, so unless you'd like to retract another student's acceptance…"

"No, no." Her sigh was a mixture of frustration and exasperation.

"I can approve one more, maybe two in good conscience, but there's a reason we reject the bulk-" She paused, Ozpin could hear the light pops of gunfire through the speaker. "I may need to call you back."

"Glynda?"

"There's a fight going on a few blocks from here, looks like a robbery"

"Where?"

"The Store is called 'Dust till Dawn', It looks like a student is trying to fight them off. I'll call you back" the connection closed with a light click.

Ozpin leaned back in his seat. As much as he hated to admit it, Glynda was right. Most of the candidates that were rejected were so for good reason. Of course, there were always the borderline cases, but they were remarkably few this year. He wasn't about to turn the young man away, but if Glynda could only get two…

He paused, turned to his computer, and called up a map. Dust till Dawn, that was near signal wasn't it? Qrow's niece was a student there if he recalled, and Glynda had mentioned a student fighting… The odds of it were unlikely, but if the apple hadn't fallen far from the tree, she would be an exceptionally skilled fighter.

Still, there was no way Glynda would let him get away with it.


	2. Chapter 2-Are we the baddies?

For the first time in his life, Jaune was bored.

Back at home, there had always been _something_ that needed doing around the castle; repairing the walls, overseeing dust extraction, and other tasks fit for a nobleman. There was plenty to do on a personal level, too; studying in the library, training with his sisters or the master of arms, even learning a bit of cooking from the staff. Sure, it wasn't always interesting, but he'd never really been stuck just waiting for something to happen.

Suppressing a yawn, he looked around the terminal once again, taking in the sights. There weren't that many of them, unless you counted the rather large crowd of students milling around. Well, large by his standards at any rate. He wasn't quite sure if this counted as a crowd by... well, anyone else's standards.

It had been a few weeks since his birthday, and apparently his aura had, in fact, been a problem or at least a nuisance. Sure, he'd gotten a good amount of time with Argent, learning how to use a sword and board, and yeah he'd gotten a couple of hunts in, but how exactly was was he supposed to take just suddenly being carted off to a no-name school in some distant backwater?

Well, maybe not so much a backwater, he thought, glancing out again at the rows and rows of buildings beneath him. Argent had been pretty quick to disabuse him of that particular notion, but still this whole place just rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe it was just the sheer number of people in one place, maybe it was because the food didn't taste quite right, but he just couldn't bring himself to relax.

At least no one was staring at him. He'd balked initially at his sister's insistence on replacing his entire wardrobe, and looking around he still wasn't convinced he'd stand out, but his new 'more casual' outfit (Essentially a shirt, some pants, and his armor) had a certain ability to blend into the background. That was probably a good thing, though a bit lonely, as he wouldn't have been able to keep up with any of the conversations going on around him.

He checked his scroll, for the upteenth time, once again marvelling at its construction. He'd have to make a note to mention them in his first letter home. Sure, they wouldn't be that useful to the help, most of them had grasping claws ill-suited to subtle manipulations, but for keeping hunters in touch over a hunt they'd be nearly indispensable. Even as he fiddled with it though, he knew he needed to find _something_ to keep him occupied until the airship came. Casting his eyes about once more, they seemed to slowly settle on a small bookstore, just off the main concourse. Argent had packed a few tomes with his luggage, but they were all purely practical things, focused on weapon maintenance and first aid. In all honesty, he could use a bit of light reading.

Unfolding himself from the mildly uncomfortable, too-small bench, and edging his way between the small clumps of hunters-to-be engaging one another in idle talk, he saw that the store had a fairly well-stocked section on folklore, in addition to the expected fare on current events. That would be good. Entertaining to read, not an especially strange subject, and it would help him learn a little more about the culture he found himself immersed in. Sliding a hand in his pocket, he mentally tallied up how much pocket money his sister had given him. Enough for a few books, probably more if he got some of those thinner ones stacked in the window. Nodding to himself, he wandered over to the shelves and picked the first book that caught his eye.

/\/\/\/\

In the Forever Fall Forest, Argent frowned as her scroll began to buzz. Getting a call in the middle of the hunt was always a bit of a mood killer, but it might be important. In all honesty, it was probably Jaune sending her a panicked text after seeing something odd. Maybe he'd tried to order liquor and was being asked about his ID? His papers were a bit of a rough job, even with the assistance of their mother's 'contacts', so if he'd gotten picked up by the law for forgery she couldn't exactly leave him hanging.

Not that she would anyways. Her mother might call her sloppy, but she was hardly a dick.

Either way, she wasn't making much progress on this hunt, so there was no harm in seeing what had happened. Leaning against a nearby oak, her frown shifted from worried to confused as she read his message.

 _Sister, I was looking through several manuscripts available for purchase at the port, and I have come across some concerns. Jaune._

Jaune was not panicking. He was a proud son of Castle Cainhurst, he did not panic. He did, however fidget nervously and flick his gaze from side to side, the book he'd selected resting on the seat next to him. Everyone seemed absorbed in their own conversations, but-

His phone buzzed. Okay, good, this techno-sorcery actually worked. Fumbling a bit, he opened the message and read, his mind stumbling a bit. His sister was as skilled at butchering prose as grimm it seemed.

 _K, 2 things bro. 1st this isnt a letter, just write lyk u talk_

 _2, what u on about?_

He frowned, glancing around to check for anyone reading over his shoulder, or through the other side of the screen.

 _I purchased a book on local mythology. I thought it would be useful, but apparently we're in it. And we're the bad guys?_

Argent's frown shifted to thoughtful. Hadn't she told him? She mentally reviewed the last few days and came up blank. Apparently she hadn't.

 _Thought I told u? Ppl think we creepy b/c blood thing idk_

 _Not like the semb. The seasoning, cookin an drinkin_

 _And mebe the help._

Jaune's not-panic grew. He knew his family weren't the monsters the book described, and his classmates seemed reasonable, so there really wasn't a need to panic. He was just being silly.

 _But we aren't? I mean the blood thing comes from our semblance, and the castle's inhabitants are perfectly reasonable when you talk to them._

Argent was in the middle of typing her reply when a rasping bark echoed through the woods. Her gargoyles had located the pack. Her thumbs hastily stabbed out the remainder before switching the device off and pocketing it. Her brother would figure it out, he was smart.

 _Ofc but they dont kno that lol_

 _Just keep quiet bout it._

 _Newbs b eager sumtimes_

Jaune's eyes widened. What did she mean by eager? He pushed out another message asking for clarification. Then another. And another. He received no reply. Apparently, whatever sorcery that animated the device had stopped functioning, or his sister's was inoperable. Either way, he was now officially on his own.

He barely noticed when everybody began to board. He was much more concerned with his new-found goal of not getting murdered by the people that were supposed to be his classmates. His mind shifted into gear as he threw together excuses for every possible misstep or odd behaviour, considering and reconsidering where he'd tell people he was from. Somewhere near home-no that might lead them back to Cainhurst. Somewhere up north would be good, same region same accents, roughly the same history. So he continued. Working himself up into a borderline nervous state. Not quite on the fight side, not quite on the flight side.

Jaune would later swear up and down that it was air sickness. Yang would give him the benefit of the doubt and back him up. But the fact of the matter is that the product of his nervousness and the stress of a strange environment, plus the sudden, unexpected appearance of an attractive blonde girl asking after his health, resulted in a sudden upwelling from his stomach and on to her shoes.

/\/\/\/\

As the ship docked and disgorged the throng of students (one staggering straight for the nearest garbage can), feelings were mixed.

Nora, however, was not one for subtlety. She was positively ecstatic! She was at Beacon, the boy she was with-but-not-like-together-with-they-were-best-friends-honest was at Beacon, her hammer-cum-grenade launcher had just had a tune up and-wait a second. Something wasn't quite right.

Her bouncing, excited jog came to an abrupt halt, almost causing the raven-haired boy behind her to hit her, and her eyes narrowed as she took in the school. There was something there, just on the corner of her vision, but she ignored it.

Ren, for his part recovered quickly. He was about to gently chastise Nora when he saw her expression, the same one she usually wore when something had gone wrong with one of her grenades and she was trying to spot the fix before an errant twitch set it off.

Just as quickly as she had stopped, she almost popped to attention, thrusting an arm out towards the academy's spires. "Ren!"

He grunted an acknowledgement.

"Look at the rooftops!"

"Hm?"

"Since when does Beacon have gargoyles? Those weren't in ANY of the pictures!"

Ren, bemused, squinted at the edges of the roof, and found that she was right. Several of the buildings had hunched, winged statues arrayed around their perimeters. With a shrug, he turned back to Nora.

"So?"

She turned to face him, giving him what looked to be her number 3 flat stare, the one she usually reserved for when he'd missed something obvious.

"So? So why would Beacon, a school for training kids with heavy weaponry, waste money on adding a bunch of ugly statues only weeks after their latest photos were published?"

She leaned towards him, her flat stare shifting into raised eyebrow and a pensive look. Glancing over her shoulder, Ren decided it was best to reign her in for now.

"Nora? You've forgotten one thing."

She tilted her head, her eyes widened in confusion as she wracked her brain for what she could have possibly overlooked. Wordlessly, Ren pointed over her shoulder towards the departing crowd. Squeaking in surprise, she seized his hand and dragged him off, already babbling about being late on the first day, or would it be the zeroth day and so on.

/\/\/\/\

Jaune, having finished tasting his lunch a second time lurched back upright, just a half second too late to see where everyone else had gone. While that did wonders to settle his nerves for now, being late before they had even assigned teams would probably attract exactly the sort of attention he'd rather avoid. Glancing around, he managed to spot a member of the faculty nearby, though the white stonework made spotting her translucent form trickier than it would be otherwise.

"Uh, excuse me, ma'am?"

She turned to face him, and his nerves eased further when he saw the absence of any real annoyance on her face. He gestured at the garbage can.

"I, uh, missed whatever announcement here was. I'm new here, where are we supposed to, uh, meet up?"

Calmly, she extended her arm, finger outstretched, and spoke to him. New students were to assemble in the main hall, over yonder. If he'd like, she could accompany him to ensure he wouldn't stray. Jaune nodded his assent, and fell in step behind her. Having to be shown around by faculty would be embarrassing, sure, but the other students likely wouldn't pry. If he was lucky, he might even catch up with the group before anyone realized he'd fallen behind.

Any hope of that was soon deterred by the muffled thump of an explosion stopping Jaune and the ghost in their tracks. On the one hand, he could ignore it and continue on his way, on the other hand someone might have actually been hurt. At the very least, it would provide an excuse for being late.

/\/\/\/\

Ruby was having an awful, awful, no good bad day. Sure, things had started out great. Barely fifteen and already in one of the best academies in the world, in the same class as her sister no less. Then her sister had blown her off, she'd run into that crabby girl, exploded, and now she was lying in a crater still at zero non-Yang friends. Maybe she should have stayed at Signal.

Her eyes flicked open as a shadow fell across face. Looking up, she saw another student. Tall, blonde, fairly-wait wasn't that the guy that-

"-uninjured?"

She blinked.

"Sorry, what?"

"I said are you alright?"

She blinked again. Why would he-Oh right, the crater. She took his outstretched hand and got to her feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just another exciting day at Beacon."

She chanced another look at him. Yeah, that was vomit boy alright. She blinked again, rubbing her eyes. Weird, it felt like there was something just behind him, but she couldn't see anything.

"Oh, uh, are you a full student here? I thought you were new here, like me."

"What? Oh, no. Just a little joke. I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose."

She put out her hand for a shake, and after a moment's hesitation he took it in his own.

"I'm Jaune. Jaune, uh, just Jaune, actually" Inwardly, he cursed. Hopefully she wouldn't ask about his slip. All that thinking about his manners, and none about his own name.

Ruby tilted her head in confusion. It sounded like he was going to say something else but stopped. Was he in trouble with his family or something? She considered asking, but thought better of it. He almost sounded scared when he'd mentioned it. She nodded to herself, yes it would probably be better to let it go.

"Right then, Jaune. Do you know where we're supposed to go?"

"What? Oh yeah, we need to go…" He paused, looking over his shoulder. Again, Ruby felt the faint impression of something behind him, a slight tingling at the base of her skull catching a bief-She shook her head to clear the sensation, and brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose. She really needed to find Yang, then find somewhere to cosy up with Crescent Rose for a nap. She looked back to Jaune just as he seemed to finished thinking "Over there. That building."

"Which one?" He pointed.

"Oh, how did you know?"

He turned back to her, his arm waving vaguely towards the Academy's grounds.

"Just kind of, asked directions. From the faculty." Oh, yeah she guessed that made sense. She supposed they were probably wandering around campus somewhere. She hadn't seen any, mind, but they were probably around.

/\/\/\/\

Several stories up, and a few hundred meters away, Ozpin looked down from his office, observing the new students. He was fairly sure he'd managed to pick out the Cainhurst boy, who looked to have met up with the other special case he'd brought in. Qrow had given him an earful when he'd found out, but the headmaster had managed to placate him.

Damn, but the man had expensive tastes.

Taking another sip of his coffee, he was stirred from his thoughts by a chime at his door. Flicking the control, he unlocked it and Glynda stepped in. With another pile of paperwork.

Civilization had the power to make men fly, and level cities, but it still hadn't found a solution to that particular menace.

He acknowledge her presence with a nod, expecting just the usual delivery, and was confused when she stayed. He hadn't done anything recently, and his welcome speech wasn't for another half hour at least.

"Glynda." Hold out bait, entice her to speak first.

"Headmaster, the staff have been talking and we have some…" she trailed off, apparently trying to figure out how best to put it "... Concerns, regarding the apparent budget."

Ozpin frowned. He was pretty sure he knew where this was going.

"The budget is available for all the staff to see. We are a public institution after all."

Glynda nodded carefully.

"Which is why we're wondering about those." She said as she swept her arm, gesturing to the windows.

He knew what she was getting at, but he couldn't resist baiting her a little more.

"It was about time to replace the windows. Especially after Miss Adel and Miss Scarlatina's last… field test."

Glynda was not amused.

"I was referring to the Gargoyles. The budget has been tight since they decided the festival would be here, and the acquisition of a hundred decorative statues is a needless drain."

Ozpin wanted to sit down and explain the situation fully. He'd held off mostly out of habit, and she did deserve to know.

On the other hand, he'd spotted a heaven-sent opportunity for dramatics, and he was not about to squander it.

"You needn't worry. For one, I got these quite cheap." He said, turning to face her. He'd have to time this just right.

She raised a single eyebrow, her skepticism plain to see.

"Cheap still isn't free. Is this related to your… Special Cases?" Ozpin could almost hear the quotation marks, but he didn't chase after it. Should be right about…

"And Number two, these aren't statues." He paused. Damn, he just barely mis-timed it. If Glynda noticed, she didn't let on, she was used to his eccentricities by now.

As the pause dragged on for another second, Glynda opened her mouth to respond before being cut off by the abrupt sound of flapping wings. A little off, but workable.

"They're Gargoyles," He finished as the creature alighted just outside an open window.

Glynda, to her credit as a huntress, did not panic, and did not appear overly surprised. Her hand did twitch to the riding crop at her side, but it was only a twitch. A less experienced hunter may have shown visible disgust at the appearance of the hunched beast, but Glynda kept her gaze steady on the headmaster as he went to retrieve the parcel it held. Using them as an improvised package retrieval system was probably petty, and definitely a risk, but there were days he just didn't want to walk all the way back down there.

She seemed to have recovered by the time he'd brought the box back to his desk. Yes, that was definitely her not-happy face. Not quite outright rebellious, but definitely bordering on Angry.

"What," she hissed through barely clenched teeth "Are those, What are they doing here, and are you seriously using them to carry your _mail?"_

"Those," he began, keeping his voice calm and level, and definitely not amused by her reaction "Were Gargoyles, courtesy of Queen Annalise of the Blood-Kin of Cainhurst, First of Her Name, Defender of the North, and a host of other titles. They are here for two reasons, the first being a trade for accepting her son in the new crop of students, and secondly to bolster our security." He took another sip of his coffee "And yes. It's rather convenient, actually."

Short, to the point, and just enough information for her to read between the lines.

"If you were so concerned with security, you could have asked James to-"

"If I asked James for help, he'd be down here with the whole Armada. While I do not doubt his soldier's competence, trusting them with this matter would guarantee a leak further down the line. And while his machines may not be so chatty, I do doubt their security."

Glynda suppressed a sigh. Yes, this was going to be a difficult sell, but it wasn't the worst thing he'd ever asked of her.

"So humans and faunus can't be trusted, but those things-"

"Are essentially bound exclusively to the will of Cainhurst. If someone were to infiltrate the right systems they could get logs of everything the knights had seen or heard, or worse turn them completely. The Gargoyles have no such issue, and neither do the ghosts."

Her eyes had narrowed at the mention of the ghosts, but overall her posture had relaxed slightly. He'd at least convinced her to trust him, but she'd still try to poke a few more holes to make sure he'd really thought it through. Just like she always did.

"Which now means we only need to worry about her agenda."

"Her agenda is obvious. The creatures are also here to keep an eye on her son. As long as we don't endanger him beyond what would be expected she'll let us keep them. She'll take them back once he graduates, but we only really need the security for a year at most. We may only need them for a semester if things go well."

"And what do you plan to tell the students when they're discovered?"

When, not if. Pessimistic, but probably accurate.

"Beacon is old. The academy is recent, but parts of the structure are much older than that. Ghost stories and rumors are to be expected. Besides, they're under strict instruction to avoid contact with the students. They'll probably bend that order around the boy, but I doubt most will notice."

Glynda pinched the bridge of her nose as she sighed. He'd convinced her. Still, she'd probably try to-

"I do wish you'd stop tempting fate like that." She sighed, turning to leave.

And there was the last word. She was probably right, but he'd honestly be surprised if more than a handful of students could sense the ghosts, let alone see or interact with them. As long as the Gargoyles kept to the vault and the spires, and students refrained from using them as target practice, the odds of them being considered more than mere statues was practically nil.


	3. Chapter 3- Improvising Plans

"I told you, sweetheart, it didn't pan out. Maybe if you had gotten me better help-"

"The store is run by a single man who is older than everyone in this warehouse combined. He's practically mute, couldn't even call for help. Seriously, how did you manage to screw that up?"

One of the best benefits of having underlings was that she never needed to get angry herself. Case in point, Emerald, bless her heart, had taken the duty of berating Torchwick for screwing up what should have been a simple smash and grab upon herself, allowing Cinder to spare her own throat and find the opportunity for a proper entrance.

The argument went on. Cinder had mostly tuned it out in favor of conducting a mental tally of what Torchwick _had_ managed to acquire. Even assuming most of these crates were half empty, he was still well ahead of schedule. Which was good. They would probably be able to keep a reserve, even after the main event. It was also bad, in that his spree of robberies had begun attracting the sort of attention she had hoped to avoid. If she was clever, she might be able to divert most of the blame towards the White Fang instead of her other, less replaceable assets.

Torchwick's voice started to swell with anger, diverting her attention back down to the warehouse floor. She should probably intervene; competition amongst her minions was useful for keeping everyone productive, but only up to the point where it became true hostility.

"Listen you little street rat, give me any more lip and I'll-"

"Do what, Roman?"

Roman just barely twitched at the interruption. His angry scowl remained on his face, but reduced, as his grip tightened on his cane. Subtle cues, but enough to know she'd rattled him and that her interruption had been perfectly timed.

"Oh, _there_ 's mommy. Sweetheart, why don't you go play out in the street while we talk about grown-up things."

Emerald's stance tensed, but she knew better than to start anything Cinder hadn't okayed. Stepping back, she glanced at Cinder for confirmation, and quietly stalked out of the warehouse when Cinder answered her with a nod. Emerald had looked mildly offended, but if there was anyone whose loyalty Cinder wasn't worried about, it was her.

As Cinder descended the metal staircase, Roman's stance shifted from outright hostile to hostile, but subordinate. He would need to be removed later, but she'd cross that bridge when it came.

"What happened, Roman?"

He didn't quite scoff at the question.

"You should know, you were flying the bullhead."

Cinder kept the confident, self assured smile on her face but frowned internally. If he was being this snippy with _her_ then the incident at the shop must have hurt his ego more than she'd thought.

"Roman, last week you hit a full Schnee Company shipment. The week before that, a military warehouse. So when I come to collect the next acquisition, which should have been an easy assignment, and instead find you running and pursued by hunters, I start to wonder about our association."

He brushed off the flattery without comment. He was even more rattled than she'd thought, and her implied threat probably hadn't helped matters. Still, if he was slipping even a little bit…

"Yeah, well, tell it to the goons your little psychopaths got me, and tell it to the pint-sized, silver-eyed, little brat that just had to play the hero instead of handing over her wallet-"

Silver eyes?

"-about to finish with her, but surprise surprise, her squawking brought down an actual hunter on my head."

That little tidbit could be investigated later.

"So instead of the haul you promised me, you brought back a literal handful of dust, a lead for the authorities to follow, half a dozen loose ends, and sour relations with the kingdom's main information broker?"

She was exaggerating, of course. None of those were actually necessary or impeding, but it wouldn't do to let slip the useful tidbit he did provide. He might start to think there was a way out, after all.

Roman actually scoffed this time, but the hostility had become wariness.

"Please, the cops couldn't track a bullhead if you painted your face on it, Junior's men were throwaways, and there are plenty of other ways to get information. And really, a handful of dust?"

He threw his arms open, gesturing to the not inconsiderable amount he'd acquired already.

"Seriously, look at this. Missing a store here or there makes no difference, there's enough to equip an army here, or level a town, or whatever your plan is. Speaking of which, I could probably do a lot more if you'd just tell me-"

That was not happening. He'd never believe it, for one.

"Oh please, Roman," she interrupted, laying a hand on his shoulder and pushing just enough heat to be felt into it. "Knowledge can be very dangerous. You'll know when I need you to know."

She withdrew her hand and turned to go, leaving Roman grumbling in her wake. He was starting to become unreliable, she might need to dispose of him sooner rather than later at this rate. Stepping out into the cool night, she turned down the street and began to make her way towards her own hideout. She didn't bother to look for Emerald, she'd fall in on her own.

Silver eyes. Under any other circumstances, she'd be inclined to disregard it. Just another legend in a world filled to the brim them. Of course, she'd thought the same of the Maiden's powers only a few years ago. Roman was a competent tactician, even if he was only an average fighter. A single girl should not have been able to cause so many problems. If that particular legend were true, she might need to change tactics. Even if it weren't, if that was the calibre of hunters in this region, she'd need to rethink her plan to simply storm wherever they were keeping the other half of her power.

Returning to the hotel room they had rented revealed a Mercury Black sprawled on the couch, watching TV, and decidedly Not Doing What He Had Been Told. Judging from his wide-eyed stare, he was quite aware of that fact too. Emerald stepped forward, once again ready to handle the task of berating a subordinate for her, but Mercury managed to preempt her.

"Hey, guys, check it out!" He said hurriedly, gesturing to the TV, "Looks like Beacon's entering it's emo goth phase."

His attempt failed to distract Emerald, who valiantly began to dress him down. Cinder, for her part, had focused on the TV, which was playing a news story on Beacon and some new funding squabble with the Council. That wasn't important, just petty politics. What caught her attention were the new adornments arrayed along the edges of the castle's roof. She almost didn't notice the creeping feeling of fear up her spine as she remembered a time when she had just begun to realize that legends were true. She crushed the feeling the instant she became aware of it. Things would be different- _were_ different. She had power now. Not much, just a taste, but as soon as she found the other half-

Her mind froze. She was dimly aware of ordering Emerald and Mercury to retire for the evening. She was slightly more aware of returning to her own room, sitting at the desk and just staring out the window into Vale.

That was too obvious. They couldn't possibly have-No one could be that stupid, even if they did have the resources. Such creatures were abominations, aggressive beasts that would attack man and grimm alike as soon as they caught the scent. They tore the living apart to feast on their blood then discarded the corpses like an empty can.

They were exactly the sort of creatures that Hunters were supposed to hunt.

There were only a few reasons they would be arrayed in plain view like that. Beacon's headmaster was not the sort of man that would pursue those arts, and she highly doubted anyone in Vale would willingly allow their children to be turned into glorified ghouls. There were too few of them to be any sort of invasion force, and too many for an infiltration. They were protecting something.

You wouldn't find those creatures outside their normal climes, unless they were controlled, which meant the man had to have asked for the help of their master. She almost shuddered in horror at the thought of what such favors might entail. That whatever they were protecting was dangerous and valuable enough to even consider such failures meant it could only be a handful of things, and she doubted the half that stirred and coiled in her gut had lead her here on a mere whim.

Yes, a full assault was now out of the question. Students they may be, but they were still hunters-

Her thoughts paused again. Hunters on one side, abominations on the other. There was no way he'd told any but his conspiracy what those statues truly were. If he had, they wouldn't be there. If the students knew what they were, someone would start shooting. True, there weren't enough to really threaten the entire student body, but what if another group intervened, hostile to both parties? The White Fang might work, but Faunus had a good sense for those sorts of abominations. The Grimm would definitely work, but how would she be able to get them into-

 _-or level a town-_

She felt a small smirk begin to spread across her face as she pulled out her scroll for some calculations. It wouldn't work on the wall, even if she set it all off against one section. Maybe if she went under but then she'd have to drill-wait they had only sealed one side of the tunnel to Mountain Glenn, hadn't they? She ran the calculations again. Yes, that would do rather nicely, actually. Idly, she wondered what her pawns would think if they knew just how many of her plans were improvised like this.

Apprentice hunters with more firepower than sense on one side, Grimm and the White Fang on the other, and abominations above. In the chaos of the fight, she'd step in and take what was rightfully hers, and extract with no one the wiser. Beacon would be shattered, either physically or by the stain of associating itself with those creatures. All she'd need is a firm date, and no one would realize she hadn't planned this all along.

/\/\/\/\

For all the terror the previous day had held, Jaune had a remarkably nice night. Sure, his pajamas had gotten him some funny looks, and a few outright snickers, but no one had really called him on them. No one had commented on his choice of reading material, either, though he probably stayed up later than he ought to have studying what the outside world thought of his family. Much of it was patently ridiculous (counting beans? really?), and he felt fairly confident that unless someone realized what his semblance actually was-or spotted the blood vials- no one would actually figure out his familial relations.

Probably.

At least he could say he had (probably) made a friend. They had a perfectly normal conversation and everything. Sure, Ruby had rushed off to find her sister as soon as the reached the hall, but it wasn't like he wouldn't have done the same thing. He might have been a bit more subtle, but he was nobility after all. Not that that seemed to matter out here, or that he could actually tell anyone, but it still counted dammit.

Stretching one more time, he casually glanced around at the other students. Breakfast had come and gone without incident. Bizarrely, none of the other students seemed to pay any attention to the faculty along the edge of the room. One of the boys in the corner seemed awful concerned with finding a bathroom, but didn't bother to ask the figure just behind him. Across the room, another girl's hand was passing in and out of the headless woman as the girl wildly gesticulated to her friends. It was almost like none of the students realized the ghosts lining the halls existed.

Rude.

The hall quieted a bit, then fell silent as the headmaster and several other adults entered. It looked like the initiation proper was starting. He closed the book and returned it to his pack, then hesitated as he saw a few vials of blood poking out from underneath his spare clothes. On the one hand, if anyone saw them he'd have a devil of a time trying to explain their presence without getting stabbed. On the other, initiation was likely to involve some sort of fighting and he really didn't want to be caught without emergency supplies. As the crowd began to thin, he made up his mind, quickly slid a few of the vials into his coat pockets, and rejoined the crowd.

He kept an eye out for Ruby as the crowd made its way to the edge of the school grounds, on a cliff overlooking a vast forest. He found her near the front, standing next a taller blonde-wait, didn't he throw up on her yesterday?

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Right then, edge of a cliff, large forest with a dense canopy, probably a decent number of grimm, and a large, ruined complex in the distance. In spite of himself, Jaune felt a sudden pang of homesickness. This was a pretty good match for the view from his old room, if warmer and with fewer pines.

If he had been paying attention, he would have heard Ozpin's advice on landing. But he wasn't, so he didn't, and the sudden activation of the pads beneath his feet took him completely off guard.

To his credit, he actually managed to somewhat recover from his wild, graceless, tumbling arc. A few more seconds, and might have been able to make a half-decent landing out it. Naturally, Miss Fortune put a stop to this by placing a very large, very sturdy tree in the way, which Jaune hit at full speed, sending the echoing crack of splintering wood echoing through the forest, before falling to the ground and landing face-first on his already battered dignity.

With a groan, he slowly pulled himself to his hands and knees. His aura had taken most of the hit and was sitting pretty at what he guesstimated was about half strength. Corcea Mors was still firmly anchored to his arm, and a quick check showed that none of his vials had broken on impact. Not the most auspicious start to his schooling, but it could certainly be much-

As his head cleared, he could hear ragged breathing from the other side of the clearing. Cautiously, he raised his head to look at the source and found several very surprised (and they had to be, they would have already attacked if they weren't) beowolves staring at him, their previous prey lying in a bloodied, mangled heap at their feet. Jaune's grip tightened on one of the vials. There wouldn't be time to administer a dose properly. One of the creatures seemed to regain its senses, and crouched low, its muscles tensing to pounce. Raising the vial to his mouth would put the shield in a guard position, he'd have to bite through the glass but his semblance should take care of that damage. More of them were on his right than left. The rest of the pack began to spread out, their surprise giving way to hunger. Behind him, the trees and underbrush were gathered thick and heavy, impassible. The one in back drew itself up and howled. Jaune's gaze flicked to it instinctively. The first one saw an opening and lunged. Jaune _moved_.


	4. Chapter 4-Coming Together

Jaune bit through the glass vial as he dove under the first beowolf's leaping tackle. The agony of the glass shards scraping into his gums was almost instantly blotted out by the sudden rush of energy. He rolled into a crouching stance, sweeping his blade right to fend off the claws of the second. Lifting his shield, he deflected the third's blows and caught just enough energy to turn him to face the fourth's snarling visage.

It was not Jaune's first fight, nor even his second. After awakening his aura, Argent had brought him along with her on several hunts and punitive raids against the grimm that surrounded their home and its vassal settlements. He'd done fairly well, and had even managed to kill an ursa the third time.

He ducked under the beast's arms as it swiped at him, stepping past to deliver two quick blows to its spine before throwing himself back to avoid the fifth's lunging jaws. He slammed the edge of his shield into its neck, and stepped backward to avoid the counter blow. Five grimm total, one wounded, all in front of him, and irritated. His eyes flicked between them, looking for his next target.

All of his previous hunts had been offensive, looking for a fight. As such, they had been in force, with a score of his family's servants accompanying him. He'd never truly fought grimm alone before, and he was beginning to see why they were considered such a threat. The one he'd hacked at seemed almost unharmed by his bladework.

His eyes flicked right as one of the creatures edged around to flank him. The grass to his left rustled, and Jaune barely brought his shield up in time to deflect another flurry of blows. Side stepping would bring him closer to the rest of the pack, so he leaned into his shield and forced it against one of the claws. The wolf, surprised by his aggression, nearly stumbled, and Jaune plunged his sword into the beast's ribs. Four to go, all behind him.

One of them roared at him as it lunged towards his back. He dropped to a crouch as he turned to face it. Its chest impacted against his shield and he twisted against the impact, using its own momentum to toss it aside. Another lunged for his unprotected side, and Jaune stepped into the twist, turning it into a spin, and brought his sword down on the beast's hand as it passed, severing it at the elbow. The beast tried and failed to impale him on its remaining claws as he stepped inside its guard and plunged his blade into its throat. Two down, two behind him, where-

Jaune felt the bark of the tree crack as his back slammed into it. The missing one had been behind his second kill, using the disintegrating body to cover its attack. He landed on his knees and rolled to the side, barely avoiding the follow-up. He brought his shield up again, prepared to deflect the next attack, only to find himself stumbling as his guard was wrenched open when the monster's jaws went for his shield instead of him. As he struggled to maintain his balance, he glimpsed number two and number three tensing for their own attacks. With a flick of his wrist, the shield dropped from his forearm, and he brought the sword down awkwardly on the bone plates atop the beast's head, stunning it.

He saw one of the beasts charge out of the corner of his eye, only to stumble and fall as gunfire echoed from the treeline. Seizing the moment, he brought his sword down on the stunned grimm's head. The last one tried to run back into the woods, but was brought down by the rifleman like its companion. With a groan, Jaune bent down to pick up his shield and turned to thank the mystery sniper.

/\/\/\/\

Pyrrha dropped from her perch and strode into the clearing, shifting Milo back into its spear form as she went. She kept an eye on the young man-her new partner as she did. His fighting style was… strange. It was aggressive, meeting every blow with a vicious counterattack. Yet it was also a highly reactive style; he never made any moves until the enemy had committed to their own. Every blow had been deliberate, no wild flailing or wasted strikes, and yet there also seemed to be a lot of unneeded flash and flair to each maneuver. She'd almost say that his style was more suited to duelling other people, but it was also clearly tailored to the idiosyncrasies of the grimm. Fascinating.

She'd have to ask him where he learned it.

He turned to face her as she approached. "My thanks for the assistance. That was becoming a bit trickier than I'd like."

She nodded back "I'm sure you could have handled them on your own." Odd, he didn't seem to recognize her. He was being somewhat formal, but it seemed to just be his normal manner. His clothes and gear were all fairly well made though, maybe he was from one of the petty kingdoms in the grimmlands?

He shrugged "Maybe, but probably better not to risk it. I'm Jaune, by the way. Just, uh, Just Jaune"

No family name? Probably not a border prince then. "I'm Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos. I suppose this makes us partners then."

Jaune almost seemed to flinch at that. Strange.

Jaune opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the sounds of the underbrush being crushed and trampled. The two of the whirled raising their weapons to confront the new threat, only to find a small rabbit dashing out from behind a bush. Followed shortly thereafter by a veritable horde of ursa.

Jaune spoke for both of them.

"Aw, crap."

/\/\/\/\

"Looks like the final pair formed. The poor Schnee girl, I couldn't think of a worse mismatch."

Ozpin grunted a response into his coffee. School regulations required him to personally oversee the initiation of new students, and his mind couldn't help but wander back to the mountain of paperwork that was no doubt steadily multiplying in his office.

"They've woken up the nevermore."

"I'm sure they can handle it." They were already on its back after all. He glanced at the screen again. The Cainhurst boy and Miss Nikos had run into another pair by the ruins. Now that they had run out of space to run, he looked to be trying to organize some sort of defense. Interesting.

Glynda flicked through the feeds again, though he couldn't fathom why. Given the size of the horde, the young man must have managed to draw the bulk of the grimm away from the other students. The feed lingered on another of his special cases, Miss Belladonna. He had to admit, he was pleasantly surprised she'd actually revealed herself to anyone before reaching the goal. His eyes flicked to the map in the corner of the screen, considering the team positions, and breathed a sigh of relief as he pieced together likely formations.

The team assignments were never truly random, but even so there were a terrifying number of things that could have gone wrong with the blood of Cainhurst added to the mix. The Faunus students in particular would have been likely to pick up on the boy's… unusual heritage, especially if his newest employees got closer than was strictly necessary. The Schnee girl's semblance would also have had some… interesting outcomes if used in conjunction with the boy's, but both of those potential outcomes had been neatly resolved without any real intervention on his part. It looked like the teams in that area would be Rose-Schnee-Xiao Long-Belladonna and Jaune-Nikos-Lie-Valkyrie, which would rather neatly keep the potential problems separated. Yes, these teams would be workable.

He flicked the feed back to Jaune's improvised defense. They were doing remarkably well all things considered, thanks in no small part to miss Valkyrie's enthusiastic and inventive use of high explosives. They'd probably need to get someone out there to repair the damage in time for next year, but he could hardly begrudge them for it. Idly, he wondered if the heart-shaped bombardment patterns were actually as optimal as they seemed to be. He'd have to forward that line of inquiry to James.

If only to see the look on his face.

He took a long sip of his coffee as he flicked the feed back to Rose-Schnee (Who had indeed just met up with Xiao Long-Belladonna), and turned his his thoughts towards selecting team leaders. Jaune would be a shoe-in, he'd neatly stepped into the role already even if it had been under duress. A few other teams also had obvious candidates he flagged for Glynda's perusal. Not strictly necessary, but he appreciated her feedback. The team with his special cases would be a problem though. Miss Schnee was already used to a certain level of command, though she lacked experience. Miss Belladonna had experience, but seemed to lack the drive a leader needed, which ruled out Miss Xiao Long as well. That only left Miss Rose, who certainly lacked the experience (and years), but seemed to have plenty of drive and energy. His frown deepened as he ran through the possible scenarios in his mind before finally flagging Miss Rose.

From the look Glynda gave him, it was apparent that she was not amused.

/\/\/\/\

The newly-christened Team JNPR made their way through the halls of Beacons dormitories, Nora babbling excitedly at the front about this and that. Jaune listened with half an ear, but he was more focused on how he was going to hide the blood vials from them. Being made the team lead hadn't really surprised him. As the scion of a noble house, he'd grown up learning how to manage servants. As a hunter to be, he'd been tutored and schooled in tactics and strategy. As one of the older siblings, he'd learned how to manage half a dozen whiny children without everything ending up on fire.

Usually.

What he hadn't expected was sharing a room. Back home, everyone had their own chambers and the servants still had a devil of a time keeping the bathrooms clean and tidy. Four people sharing one bathroom, with no servants to help them clean? He shuddered at the thought. Maybe he could convince some of the ghosts to help, both with the bathrooms and the blood thing. On the other hand, his team almost seemed to be flat out ignoring the ones they passed. Was he not supposed to speak to them, was there some sort of cultural thing he was missing?

It was all a moot point until they found their room anyways. For all that Beacon seemed to be more sanely laid out than home, its interior was still a nightmare to navigate. Still, they were making progress. They were on the right floor, at least. Probably. Nora came to an abrupt halt, tilting her head as if considering something. Slowly, her head rotated towards the door on the right, and she considered it carefully.

Actually, she was probably looking at the pale, translucent hand sticking halfway through it, beckoning them inside. Or possibly not, as she flung open the door and stepped through the poor ghost on the other side. "AHA!, I FOUND IT!", Nora declared, as the poor ghost drifted through the adjacent wall, mortified.

Jaune stepped into the room with the rest of his team. It was… alright, he supposed. 4 beds, about half the size of his own at the castle, were arrayed against the far wall, two to either side of the small window that looked out over the forest. Each bed had a matching desk on the near wall, and several bookshelves were aligned along the remaining wall space. Their luggage had been unceremoniously left in a corner, though Jaune's had been carefully and neatly placed on one of the beds. Leader privileges, he supposed.

"Oh man this is AWESOME! We have sooo much space. Hey, I bet if we moved a few of these bed around, we could probably fit a pool table in here." Nora turned, grinning to to the rest of the team and looking for support.

Her push was immediately stonewalled by Ren. "We don't have a pool table."

Nora's grin morphed into a pout as she stared down her nose at Ren. "We could buy one, obviously."

"We'd have to pay for the delivery."

"I could totally carry it in from town, just zap me a few times!"

Pyrrha hummed thoughtfully "I don't know, even if we moved the beds side to side I don't think we would have enough space."

Nora fixed her with a flat look, clearly unimpressed "Well that's why we'd make them into bunk beds."

Jaune blinked in confusion. "I'm sorry, bunk beds?"

That had been the wrong question to ask, he decided as his entire team turned disbelieving looks to him.

"Yeah, you know. Bunk beds," Nora restated. "Where you like, take the beds, and sort of, you know. Stack them."

Jaune looked back to the beds. They were barely a foot off the floor at their lowest point. "There isn't nearly enough, uh, clearance for that."

Nora scoffed "We can just stack some books on the posts or something. It'll be perfectly sa-" _WHUMP._

The team paused as the sound of something very big and very heavy falling was followed by muffled yelling from their neighbors. Jaune mentally scratched 'soundproof' from the list of dorm qualities as he went to check on them. He blinked in surprise when Ruby answered the door.

"Hey Jaune, What's up, leader buddy?"

"Hey, uh, we heard something fall, is everyone alright?"

Now Ruby looked nervous. "Oh yeah, sure, everything just fine. Just great. Really, No problems at-"

"She tried to make bunk beds by stacking books on the posts," Ruby was interrupted by a significantly taller blonde girl who peaked her head around the doorframe to see who Ruby was talking to. Wait wasn't that-Okay, from the now distinctly unamused look that was definitely the girl he'd-

"Hey, aren't you the guy that threw up on my-"

He winced, best to get this out of the way now ."Yes, I am, and I offer my most sincere apologies for that incident."

She considered him for a moment, before softening her expression with a shrug "Eh, It's alright I guess. They were just boots, they were going to get dirty anyways. I'm Yang, by the way."

As true as that was, it never seemed to buy any leeway from his mother, but he'd take it. "I'm Jaune. So, no one was injured?"

"Just our pride." Yang put a hand on Ruby's shoulder, "Come on, Ruby, we need to get that off of Weiss before she wakes up."

Ruby winced. "'Kay. See you tomorrow, Jaune".

Jaune nodded as she closed the door. As he walked back in, he saw that Nora had apparently decided that some of the bookcases would be better for making bunk beds, and was presently manhandling one of them into place. Pyrrha glanced at him before her gaze shifted back towards Nora with concern.

"What happened?"

Jaune shrugged "They tried to make bunk beds, and one of them collapsed, I guess."

Nora paused, the bookcase in her hands balanced precariously on one of the bedposts. She looked thoughtful for a few seconds before gazing upward at the ceiling.

"So, if we also got some lengths of rope-"

Ren shut her down immediately. "Veto."

Nora pouted, but replaced the bookcase to its spot below the window as Jaune just barely managed not to breathe a sigh of relief. The last thing he needed was his bed toppling while he was still in it. Or while his blood vials were still hidden in it. He really needed to find a hiding spot for those, and the sooner the better. Nora especially seemed to be one of the… enthusiastic ones.

/\/\/\/\

Weiss suppressed a sigh as Ruby tried to convince Yang to allow the bunk beds-the incredibly unstable, tied to the ceiling bunk beds- to remain in spite of the obvious danger they posed. From the looks of it, it was working too and Weiss knew trying to convince her child of a team leader otherwise would be nearly impossible.

She wasn't bitter about being passed over as team leader. That would imply resentment and too much emotional investment. Her concerns were logical, well thought out, and organized. Ruby was too young to be here. Weiss was expected to inherit the family business, and had received extensive instruction on how to properly manage subordinates. Weiss had a litany of achievements and successes behind her schooling, while Ruby only really seemed to have excelled in combat training. Appointing Ruby as leader simply made no sense.

Her other teammates were at least somewhat better. Blake was somewhat aloof, but agreeable enough, and her dedication to literature spoke highly of her intelligence. Well, maybe not the trashy romance novels, but there was some real literature mixed in. Yang was easy to get along with, and mostly content to take a supporting role rather than a leading one. Though if puns were indeed her preferred form of humor, their relationship would be on thin ice.

Oh gods, now she was doing it. Were puns contagious?

Still, her teammates weren't the real issue. Actually, she couldn't even really describe the real problem. Apart from her… suboptimal team assignment, everything had gone rather well. Pyrrha Nikos seemed open to a friendship, her dust stores had been replaced (though she'd spare Ruby the bill. She wouldn't be able to pay it anyways), and the initiation had gone well. Most of the other teams had only had to deal with a few beowolves, or the occasional ursa, but her team had utterly dominated a full-grown nevermore. True, another team had had to deal with almost a score of ursa, but quality trumps quantity.

She finished shelving the last of her and Blake's books (Organized by title and genre), and threw open the window curtains to let the sunlight in. She scowled as she saw the window had a lackluster view of the campus interior. The scowl further deepened as she saw one of the gargoyles was staring right at their room. Sure, they were just stone, but having one staring directly at their room made her feel uneasy.

That was the problem, though. Ever since she had set foot on the campus, there had just been a strange feeling on the air. She couldn't really describe it, a sort of constant scratching at the edge of her aura, a tingling itch at the base of her neck. Several times she'd experienced sudden, unearthly chills while walking across the campus, but never in the same place twice.

Something about this place just didn't fit right.

Maybe coming to Beacon had been a mistake.

She started slightly as another heated discussion broke out behind her, this time over how to allocate wardrobe and desk space. This actually needed her attention. She had paid good money for those clothes and she was not about to see them forced into a stuffy drawer to wrinkle just so Ruby could fit a secondary weapon locker in their rightful place.

An hour later, the argument had been settled, everyone had finished unpacking, and the sun had begun to sink behind the horizon. The four of them had settled in and officially introduced themselves. She got to hear Ruby's life story, twice, and learned she and Yang were sisters (But didn't share a family name), and wowed them with her own. Blake had seemed remarkably unimpressed with it all and had offered up scant details on herself, but she'd been quiet throughout the conversation and kept sneaking glances out the window.

Yang finally seemed to notice after her partner deflected the upteenth question about her past.

"Come on, Blake. What's out there that's so much more interesting than us?"

Blake sighed, glancing out the window yet again, "It's nothing. Just… those statues. They just feel… weird."

The four of them turned their gazes to the gargoyle Weiss had seen earlier, considering its hunched pose, bat-like wings, snarling grimace, and raised claws-wait.

Weiss' eyes narrowed as she scrutinized her memory of the last hour.

Hadn't it been on all four earlier? She couldn't remember.

Ruby spoke up first "I mean, they're just statues, right? Ugly, weird, kinda scary looking statues. Staring into our room." She hesitated a second before turning to Weiss "Did you bring any curtains?"

Weiss frowned. On the one hand, she wanted there to be at least some natural light in the room. On the other, that statue was fairly disconcerting. She opened her mouth to respond, but Yang interrupted her first, a smirk spreading across her lips.

"Oh come on, Rubes. Give a few weeks and I guarantee you'll take it for _granite!_ " The smirk blossomed into a full on grin as three sets of eyes tried and failed to set her ablaze.

Dinner barely managed to interrupt Yang's onslaught of puns, though she had the good grace to stop when the time came to discuss their schedules and upcoming schoolwork. The sun finally sank and night fell across the school. They argued over who got to shower first, and slowly began to settle in for the night's slumber. Weiss was the last to change out of her normal wear, and the rest of the team had fallen asleep by the time she had finished.

As she stepped lightly over to her bed, she glanced out the open window one more time.

Her tired mind did not allow her to see the gargoyle's absence.


	5. Chapter 5-Forget

The best part of being the master of a so-called border kingdom was the lack of bureaucracy.

Yes, she still had to consider missives from her vassal villages. Yes, she had to consider daily reports from her master of arms and sources closer to 'real' civilization, but all of those were as much personal discussions as they were affairs of state. Nothing like the boring busywork the 'real' kingdoms produced, and it required infinitely less paper to keep track of.

Of course, that didn't always make it more interesting. Certain formalities had evolved over the centuries and had begun to grow tiresome on their own.

Still, Annalise thought, letters from family were always enjoyable to receive. Withholding their contents was also useful for encouraging her younger children to learn to read. Apparently, letters were even more effective when from their now-absent brother.

Idly, she ran a hand through her youngest's hair as they read her son's latest letter.

/\/\/\/\

 _Dearest mother,_

 _I must apologize for taking so long to write. While by no means miserable, my time at Beacon has been hectic. I admit, I was not expecting initiation to throw us to the beowolves quite as literally as it happened, but as far as assigning teams go it is much preferable to mere random selections._

 _Naturally, I have been assigned the position of team leader, and have under my command 3 other students, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie._

 _Pyrrha Nikos is the most skilled fighter on my team, and was apparently a champion pit fighter in Mistral for some time before she made her way into a more respectable profession. She's been of a good sort thus far, very polite and amiable, and has proven to be surprisingly intelligent considering her background._

 _My other teammates are something of a study in contrasts. Apparently, the two of them have been together for quite a while now, though Nora will vehemently deny any romantic happenings between them. Lie Ren has proven very easy to get along with, only really speaking up to weigh in on matters sufficiently important and keeping idle discussion to a minimum. Still, he's far from taciturn, and I feel we will become good friends._

 _Nora Valkyrie, on the other hand-_

"JAAAAUNE!"

Jaune had many instincts, some innately born, some forged by long hours under his sisters and the master of arms. Every single one of them had picked up the dangerous undercurrent of Nora's yell, a tone he knew all too well from the times his elder siblings had discovered that he had screwed up in some way, and they forced him into one course of action.

"I didn't do it."

Usually, that bought him a few seconds to collect his thoughts and marshal a counterattack.

But not today.

"HE ADMITS IT!"

Jaune turned from the letter, tossing an exasperated glance to a very bemused Pyrrha as he did, and gave Nora his best Disappointed Commanding Officer look.

"That is like, the exact opposite of what I said."

Nora glared down from her perch atop his bed (and by the blood, she was STILL wearing her muddy boots).

"Are you saying you DIDN'T move my bomb kit?"

He glanced at her desk. Sure enough, the small tool kit wasn't on it.

"No, I didn't."

Nora's frown deepened as she hoped off his bed and turned back to her desk, rifling through the drawers. With a raised eyebrow, Jaune glanced at Ren. Ren glanced back, his lips pulled in a slight grimace. They both knew this attitude, Jaune had seen it often enough from his younger sisters.

Of course, his sisters (apart from Noire) didn't work with explosives as part of their daily routine.

Sure, they'd survive any explosions thanks to their aura. Their room and personal effects on the other hand...

"Well, where did you last leave it?"

Nora paused, then turned to look at her team leader, a flatly unamused expression on her face.

"Jaune, I work with stuff that can and will detonate itself if anything is even a hair out of place. You really think I didn't already check there?"

Okay, point to her.

"Well, maybe the staff moved it when they were cleaning or something. I'm sure it's around here somewhere…"

He trailed off as one of faculty drifted into the room. He felt that tingling sensation again as she asked if there was something the matter. He cast a simple response, Nora was missing her tools. She frowned in thought, lowering her head to waist level as she did so, before indicating the wardrobe in the corner. Jaune sent a simple thanks before turning back to his team.

"Did you check the wardrobe?"

Nora scoffed slightly at that, but checked it anyways. Satisfied that the situation had been handled, he turned back to the rest at his team. Pyrrha had gone back to the night's reading, but Ren was looking at him strangely.

"What?"

Ren brought one hand up to his chin, stroking it thoughtfully before responding.

"Did either of you invite anyone to our room?"

Jaune glanced over his shoulder to Pyrrha, who frowned and shook her head.

"I did not invite anyone."

"I didn't either."

Ren's frown deepened.

"Then how could the toolkit have been moved? We've been the only ones coming and going."

Jaune wasn't sure what to think now. Sure, there seemed to be some sort of aversion to acknowledging the cleaning staff, but really, acting like they flat out didn't exist was going a bit far.

Pyrrha preempted him before he could start chewing out Ren.

"The cleaning staff has also been in and out."

Ren shook his head.

"There isn't any cleaning staff. We're supposed to maintain the rooms -and bathrooms- ourselves."

Now Pyrrha looked puzzled.

"Then who's been doing our laundry?"

"Jaune, I thought. I've been doing mine and Nora's."

They looked to Jaune, who was now most definitely confused but not for the reason they thought.

"I… uh… I've just been leaving it for the… uh… staff… that, uh-"

"-That don't exist," Ren finished for him.

Nora, having restored her toolkit to its proper place, spoke up.

"Wait, Pyrrha's famous, right?"

Jaune shrugged. She'd said she was a pit-fighter, and while he knew skilled duelists could accrue a reputation it seemed Pyrrha's had gone a bit beyond that.

"Then CLEARLY, someone is TRYING TO STEAL HER PANTIES! Quickly Ren, We must-"

"-they're all there."

Jaune blinked. Once, twice. Then turned to fix Pyrrha with a questioning look.

"...It's a habit I developed. At my manager's insistence."

That… sounded like it should explain more than it actually did to him, so he nodded like he understood, but made no further comment.

"Well then, CLEARLY, it was a ghost!"

Jaune almost opened his mouth to confirm it. Then he saw his teammate's faces.

They looked like Nora had just told them Grimm could tap dance.

Suddenly, the last few weeks snapped violently into place.

The reason everyone acted like there weren't any faculty were around was because none of them could see the apparitions that patrolled the halls. They talked and laughed and ignored the women because they had no idea anyone was there.

They didn't know ghosts existed. At all.

"Oh come on guys, don't give me that look! It's the only explanation left!"

Nora was pouting at them now. Or rather, pouting at Ren, for all the good it seemed to be doing.

"Nora, ghosts don't exist."

"Sure they do! We just need to catch them in the act! We'll set up a stakeout and see just who's been going into our things and stealing Pyrrha's underwear!"

Pyrrha's hand briefly graced her forehead, but there wasn't any disapproval in her tone.

"That's not a bad idea, actually. The laundry usually gets done a few days from now. There's plenty of time to set something up. What do you think, Jaune?"

Outwardly, Jaune smirked.

"Sounds good. We could set up a watch schedule easy enough."

Inwardly, he was cursing up a storm. If they couldn't perceive the ghosts, then they wouldn't even be able to see the ghost walking away with the laundry. Their minds just wouldn't allow them to comprehend its absence until it was returned, fresh and clean, which would all but confirm Nora's ghost theory.

Nora being Nora, he had little doubt the next step would involve trying to hunt the ghost down and interrogate the poor thing. Interrogation would require someone who could understand it, which would be him. Then people would start to wonder why he could talk to the dead, which would lead to an investigation, which would reveal his ancestry and the whole blood thing. Which would probably cause a riot.

Damn. He'd need to find some way out of this.

He did an admirable job of multitasking as his team hashed out a rough plan for catching the 'thief'. Eventually, they had something workable, and potentially sabotageable, and they returned to their studies. Jaune returned to his letter home. He could mention this to Mother, but it would take a solid week for her to receive it. Far too little time to receive any useful feedback, even discounting his mother's more… proactive inclinations.

He'd have to manage this on his own.

/\/\/\/\

Annalise could feel a soft smile creep across her features as she finished the letter. She had been rather worried for her son on his first foray into the wider world, but by the tone of the letter he had everything well in hand. The servants she'd sent had reported that he'd settled into his new responsibilities rather well. Apparently, he was also getting along rather well with his team, that would be good. Academy hunters were always close with their teams, even beyond their training, and the lands of Cainhurst could always use a few more reliable hunters to keep the peace.

She passed the letter to Noire, who took it and sped off to her room to share with the others while Annalise turned back to the papers on the desk. She knew what most of them were already. The grimm surrounding her lands had been growing restless. There had been no attacks as yet, but more and more had been sighted along the edges. She'd have to recall many of her hunters abroad to deal with this rise.

Still, she was loathe to recall Argent as yet. Sure, nothing had happened to Jaune as of yet, but that didn't remove the possibility that he would need rapid extraction. Besides, the girl seemed to be greatly enjoying her excursion beyond their ancestral lands.

A flapping at the window drew her attention. Another message, this one from the local relay. She examined it with a critical eye. It seemed that Ozpin was looking to expand their cooperation.

She was half tempted to dismiss it with a politely worded reply, but the implications were… unsettling. If accurate, it meant that this sudden surge in grimm activity was no accident. Someone- or something- was deliberately stirring them up.

What's more, he was of the opinion one of his sources had been turned.

Maybe she wouldn't recall Argent after all.

/\/\/\/\

She had to admit, she was somewhat unimpressed by Beacon.

Oh sure, the history of the school was grand. The hunters it turned out were some of the best. The teachers all verifiable experts in killing grimm dead.

As she glanced at the clock for the upteenth time, however, Weiss had to admit it.

Lectures were always going to be boring.

It didn't help when the lecture was on material her tutors had already drilled into her.

It hadn't been interesting then, either.

She suppressed a sigh and stole another look around the room. It seemed like everyone was in the same boat as her. Most of the students had long since stopped paying attention to the lecture, content to mess around on their scrolls. A studious few had taken to reading the textbook instead. A few were staring, glassy eyed, at the board. The rest talked quietly amongst themselves.

Team CRDL were literally asleep, propped up against one another in an impressive display of team coordination.

Not that she could blame them. Her own team was hardly in better shape. Ruby had been distracted by a small beetle crawling around on the desk. She hoped Yang was just messing around on her scroll. She didn't want to know why she was smiling at her crotch if she wasn't. Blake at least, was being somewhat productive, reading one of her books under the desk. It was good to know someone on her team was cultured, at least.

She tried to refocus on the lecture, to no avail. Was there even a point to discussing the politics of the border kingdoms? Half the students here would never go beyond the villages directly under the protection of the four kingdoms, and the other half already knew how to deal with them.

A sigh escaped her lips as her gaze wandered once again. Team JNPR was discussing something in hushed whispers, and she strained her ears to make it out. Something about their laundry, or housekeeping? Why would they be discussing something like that in class?

Something about it caught Ruby's interest, apparently, and she gently poked Jaune's shoulder to catch his attention, and he leaned over to whisper to her.

Forget it. If her team leader (and didn't that still rankle) was going to get involved, she'd find out sooner or later. Unbidden, she felt another surge of resentment. Why, oh why, had they made her team lead over Weiss. She was a Schnee, the thought of having to take orders from anyone was just- she needed to find something to distract herself. She couldn't lose control like this.

She cast her gaze about in search of anything she could focus on. That damned clawing sensation was back again too, and it wasn't helping her calm down. It brought to mind bad memories; Weiss and her Sister exploring some of the older parts of the mansion, stumbling on an old secret passage leading down-

-her father pulling her up by her arm, yelling at her out of fear and anger. She shuddered at the memory, and Blake quirked an eyebrow at her in concern, and Weiss almost brushed it off when the other girl suddenly tensed, as her eyes darted about the room before settling on the door. Weiss followed her gaze, but she couldn't make anything out- wait, no. There was something there, or the impression of something? She could just barely make it out, but not when she looked at it, the impression of a young woman walking by, but there was something wrong. She was carrying a basket of laundry, likely one of the cleaning staff then, but there was strange thing on top of the basket, staring ahead as she walked-wait no that was her head what the-

"Miss Schnee?"

She started, head darting to look at the teacher, what was his name? Woodjeck? Ooschmit?

"Yes professor?"

She had seen something, something wrong, what was it?

"Tell me, what's the most typical method of government beyond the borders of the four kingdoms?"

She knew this, her tutors had drilled it into her mind years before. She had forgotten something, but what was it?

"There isn't one. Smaller villages often operate communally, or under a small council. Other villages form loose confederations under whichever village has the strongest militia or based on older traditions."

The professor stared at her as he took a long, drawn out sip from his thermos. Oobleck, that was his name. She'd answered the question, she remembered his name, but what had she forgotten?

"Correct Miss Schnee. Still, I would appreciate it if you deigned to pay more attention in my class."

She mumbled an apology and sat back down. Yang was openly smirking at her while Ruby was trying to cheer her up, but she ignored them. Just over Ruby's shoulder, Jaune was looking… guilty?

Wait, they'd mentioned something earlier. About their laundry, something about it being stolen-no about not doing it. She had forgotten something, or been made to forget something. He glanced over at her team, and for just a split second he froze when he noticed her stare. He flicked his eyes away almost immediately, but his posture had become oddly fixed.

She had forgotten something, but she hadn't forgotten that she'd forgotten. Jaune was acting strangely, around the same time she had realized it.

He knew something.


	6. Chapter 6-Carpe Diem

Mercury was keeping his face as blank and unassuming as possible.

"Are… you feeling alright?"

Cinder suppressed a sigh. Honestly, after all she'd showed them, _this_ is what they got hung up on.

"Come on Mercury, I'm sure she's... taking this seriously."

Even Emerald was hesitant to leap to her defense. At least Mercury had picked up on her growing annoyance.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, you're the boss. Give the order and we'll do it, it's just…. Vampires? Ghosts? Gargoyles? Really? All of that is just a little, you know, out there."

Slowly, Cinder raised one eyebrow, fixing the young man with her best condescending stare.

"Yes, I suppose it is hard to take in. Possibly even harder than learning your childhood stories were real. We did hunt down the fall maiden and steal her powers."

Mercury worked his jaw for a few seconds, struggling to come up with a response that wouldn't get him killed. Or on Torchwick duty. Finding none, he glanced around the small hotel room, looking to his alleged comrades for aide. One was too smart to help him dig deeper. The other was getting far too much enjoyment from his struggles to help.

"...right, that's fair. But how is all of this, you know, relevant?"

Finally, back on track.

"There's only a handful of places in Vale where they could hide the other half of my power. Exactly one of them has seen a significant change in decor since that hunter interrupted us."

"Wait, so Beacon's goth phase is actually-"

"Yes, the arrogant fool has parked monsters on his own rooftop. There's likely others in and around Beacon, which means our infiltration is going to be messier than we expected."

Emerald shrugged, looking a bit less hesitant now that they were back on more familiar ground.

"At least we aren't on a time limit."

"We aren't on a _firm_ time limit. If they are storing it at the school, they will have no shortage of easily-manipulated candidates to implant it in. That would make extraction trickier than it has to be."

Mercury relaxed back into the couch a bit.

"That still doesn't explain what you want us to do now."

"There is a store on the edge of town that specializes in rare books. Tomorrow, you and Emerald are going to retreive a few." She handed Emerald a slip of paper, an address and a short list. Emerald frowned thoughtfully at it.

"Isn't this the same store Roman was supposed to take care of? You want us to handle that too?"

"No. We'll let Roman handle it on his own time. Concern yourself with the books, and nothing else."

Mercury cocked an eyebrow at that.

"I don't think the Fang are going appreciate letting him go."

Cinder just barely managed to avoid scoffing at that.

"What the animals want is no concern of ours. His desertion might hurt them in the long run, but we won't need them long enough for that to matter."

Emerald nodded.

"So hit this place up, steal the books-"

Cinder interrupted her before she could finish. Honestly, did any of her pawns bother thinking before they spoke?

"No. You will purchase the books, legally, with cash that hasn't been stolen. The man is arrogant, not stupid. Theft, even without an attached murder, would draw his attention and bring a horde of his puppet hunters down on our heads."

In the back of the room, Neo slowly raised a hand, and this time Cinder did sigh.

"Yes, Neo, that would be bad."

Neo dropped the hand.

A brief moment of silence passed before Emerald spoke up.

"Are we going to tell the White Fang about the… things at Beacon?"

"No. Animals tend to get flighty when it comes to creatures like these. If we told them ahead of time, they would cut and run too quickly. Besides, the added chaos when the realize exactly what's guarding the school will keep them from doing too much damage. We want cover for our extraction, not the destruction of Vale."

Mercury cocked his head, thinking.

"It's a good plan. Still haven't heard where exactly we'll be breaking in to for the finale."

Ah, yes. That was a bit of a stumbling point, wasn't it.

"Please, Mercury. You worry too much. When you need to know, I'll let you know."

But they didn't need to know that.

/\/\/\/\

Jaune relaxed on his bed, a book propped up on his knees.

He had a plan.

It's wasn't a good plan, mind.

It wasn't even an adequate plan.

It was, in fact, the sort of plan Argent would help him with, partly to keep him from getting into too much trouble, but mostly because she wanted to see just how horribly it would fall apart.

Nevertheless, it was a plan. He could adjust it on the fly if he needed to, which was probably his best skill tactics-wise, so it made a good starting point.

He idly turned a page without reading it. Nora was assembling more grenades in one of the outlying shacks. Ren had gone into town to pick up a few things they hadn't realized they would need in a dorm, and Pyrrha was currently rifling through her supplies, frowning.

"Jaune?"

He glanced at her "Yeah?"

"What happened to my repair kit?"

He adjusted his position, leaning over the side of the bed to look. Sure enough, several of the tools she was holding had been bent. Not much, but enough to limit their usefulness.

Which was strange, considering how high-quality the steel was.

It was also strange because that hadn't been part of his plan at all.

He shifted a bit, and winced when he felt the two magazines bump against each other.

"I… I'm not sure. Did… uh… Did you drop them? Or let Nora use them?"

Pyrrha frowned, "What would Nora have to do with this?"

"She was working on some new grenades, wasn't she? Some sort of thermal whatsit? The heat could've warped them a bit."

She sighed, halfheartedly placing them back into their case. "Maybe. It's strange that she would just put them back though. She gets so fussy over her own tools."

Jaune was about to respond when his scroll began buzzing. He fumbled a bit getting it out and blinked at the number it listed. Why would Nora be calling him?

Ah well, speak of the grimm and they would appear.

He flicked it open and brought it to his ear.

"Nora?"

"Hey, Jauney, question."

"Uh, go ahead?"

"What's Pyrrha's Favorite color?"

He blinked, slightly confused by the question, before turning to look at Pyrrha with a raised eyebrow. "Pyrrha's favorite color?"

Pyrrha stared at him for a second, bemused, before opening her mouth in realization. Wordlessly, she pinched the skirt of her uniform, raising it slightly.

Jaune nodded, "Uhh, red. But a darker shade. Burnt vermillion, maybe?"

"...Really, Jaune? Vermillion?"

Jaune leaned over the bed again, squinting at Pyrrha's skirt.

"Yeah. Maybe a bit closer to carnelian, now that I think about it."

There was a pause on the other side of the line.

"Okay, Red it is."

"It's not really-"

"Jaune, they have red, and they have not-red. I'm getting the red one."

Jaune sighed, pinching his nose in exasperation. "Why do you even need to know?"

There was a sharp intake of air on the other side, of the sort his younger sisters made when Mom caught them playing with live steel.

"I may have sort have accidentally warped Pyrrha's tools when I was testing my thermite grenades. So I'm getting her a replacement. A really nice replacement, since Weiss owes me a favor for that essay."

"...Essay?"

"If you don't know, you can't tell the honor committee. Anyways, gotta go check out."

The scroll clicked as Nora ended the call. He glanced at Pyrrha, who was regarding him curiously.

"What was that about?"

Jaune shrugged. "She's actually down in town buying you a replacement kit. With Weiss' money."

Pyrrha nodded. "That's kind of her. She didn't need to spend- wait, Weiss' money?"

"Yeah. Apparently, Nora 'helped' Weiss with that paper for our history class. And it was probably sort of that kind of help that I, in my official capacity as team leader, am not supposed to know about."

Pyrrha's gaze hardened. "She helped Weiss cheat."

"Yeah."

"On a major paper."

"So she said."

Pyrrha nodded as she stood. She took two steps to the door before hesitating, looking back to Jaune with uncertainty.

"Should we tell the professor?"

Jaune choked. "What? No, no way! I mean, all she told me was that she, you know, helped Weiss. That's not exactly enough to go on. Besides, the teachers want us to be, you know, a team. Dragging a teammate out for punishment wouldn't look, you know, teamwork-y."

Pyrrha stood silent, considering but not convinced. A thought occurred to him and he pressed on.

"Why not just keep this in the team? Go down, meet Nora when she's coming back and, uh, put the fear of grimm in her? If you really want, you can pay Weiss back and have Nora owe you the favor. Make her clean Milo for you one day, or something."

Pyrrha wavered for a second, but her expression hardened and she departed with a nod. Jaune waited for a few more minutes before digging Milo's empty magazines out from under his mattress and replacing them in her desk. Not at all what he initially planned, but he was good at seizing opportunities when they came.

He slipped out of the room, and quietly made his way down to an unused storage room the servants had been using as an impromptu break room. Technically speaking, it was one of those places that he was supposed to politely ignore, but it would be his best chance at finding one of them quickly.

Checking to make sure no one followed him, he gently rapped at the door and nudged it open. Surprisingly, only one was in at the moment, one he vaguely recognized from his childhood. She curtsied to him, and he felt a slight amount of puzzlement as she asked him what he was doing down in the lower basements.

"I require a favor."

/\/\/\/\

Weiss kept a slight smile affixed to her face as Nora ran through another long, rambling story about growing up with Ren.

No, that was excessive. Shopping with Nora had been surprisingly entertaining. Sure, she was loud, and nearly as energetic as Weiss'... partner, but she was also fairly easy going and had quite the discerning eye.

She almost felt bad about using her to get at Jaune.

That wasn't the right way to put it. Yes, she did want to speak with Jaune. He was obviously aware of that… thing she hadn't seen. Or had seen and forgotten. Or hadn't seen, but sensed and couldn't quite grasp?

Whatever it was he knew about it, and she couldn't let something that had so obviously messed with her lie. Unfortunately, he'd also been flighty as hell afterwards, practically dragging his team to their next class. Sure, their team's schedules overlapped semi-frequently, but she'd never been able to pin him down for a serious talk.

So she wasn't really using Nora to get at Jaune. She was making friends with Nora so she could make friends with Jaune. Which really made it practice for the family business, but with a girl closer to her age, more frivolous shopping, and actually fun to do.

She bit back a genuine laugh as Nora finished up her latest story, just as the shuttle set down at Beacon. The door opened, and she braced herself for that awful clawing feeling. Her eyes widened slightly as she felt it. It was there, sure, but it wasn't quite as… Itchy? Bubbly?

She stepped out with Nora, a few bags slung under her arm and glanced around, hunting for what had changed. There weren't many other passengers disembarking, a few students running errands and a couple of the professors coming back from what little respite the weekend offered them. A few ground crew pushed a cart up to the transport, and to her side a few other students and others boarded the-wait.

She whipped her head around. It was that feeling again, the same one as the lecture hall. She narrowed her eyes, searching for what might have triggered it. She only found her fellow students, one of them a faunus who seemed to wilt under her gaze. She shook her head and stalked off.

Nora caught up with her after a few steps.

"Wow, Weiss, what was up with that?"

Dust, she didn't want to have this conversation. She knew what Nora was thinking.

"What was up with what?"

"That glare. Poor girl brushes you and suddenly you're glaring a hole in her."

Had she? Was that what had gotten her-no, there had been something else.

"It wasn't that, it was just… I don't know, I thought I saw something unpleasant."

Wait, no, damn. That was even worse.

"Not like that, I mean. Just… I've been feeling this weird… sensation at the edge of my aura. The feeling intensified as we were stepping off and I just-"

"You just thought she might have done it?"

"Not her- not anyone- specifically. It's just been bugging me, and I really don't need it on top of everything else we're doing."

Nora nodded, resting a hand on Weiss' shoulder.

"Sounds pretty bad. You talked to the nurse about it? Have you been making sure to use pro…"

Whatever crass joke Nora had been about to make died on her lips as a very angry Pyrrha Nikos stalked towards them. Weiss quickly filed through her (very recently unreliable) memories of the past day and came up blank. Concluding that Pyrrha was there for Nora, Weiss quietly inched away from the target, ready to bolt if things got hot. She knew what her chances against the Champion of Mistral would be.

"Heeeey, Pyrrha, So I know I might have kinda used your stuff without asking and maybe sort of broke it a bit-"

Nora's haphazard attempt at defusing the girl ended with a squawk as Pyrrha quietly, but forcefully, frog-marched Nora off the landing pad, whispering rather forcefully into the other girl's ear. Weiss hesitated. On the one hand, this was probably a team thing that she shouldn't get involved in. On the other hand, Nora was a (very recent) friend which meant she should at least _try_ to go to her aid.

Intervention seemed unnecessary in the end, as Nora quietly handed over a small package. Pyrrha sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, but accepted it. They exchanged a brief hug, and Nora made her way back to the dorms as Pyrrha Wandered over to Weiss.

"I am sorry about that. I just needed to talk to my teammate about… borrowing tools without asking."

Ah, so that's what this had been about.

"I can sympathize. Ruby can be very eager when she gets ideas for modifications."

Pyrrha smiled gently at that. "Anyways, how much was this? I can pay you back for it."

Weiss blinked in surprise. "What? No, no, consider it a gift between friends. It's the least I could do."

Sure, she hadn't actually needed to borrow Nora's notes. But they didn't really need to know that.

They looked at each other, and a silent battle of wills ensued as Atlasian Economics dueled Mistrali Hospitality. In the end, pragmatism won out as Pyrrha sighed and looked away.

"Then I thank you for the gift, Weiss."

Could she leverage this into an autograph? No, that would just be crass.

"Think nothing of it. I'd be happy to return the favor in the future."

To her surprise, instead of a polite reply and a parting of ways, Pyrrha actually seemed to consider the offer. Tilting her head slightly, Pyrrha looked at her consideringly.

"Since you mention it, My team has run into an… issue."


	7. Chapter 7-Just a Taste

She drifted through the streets of the city, mingling among its many residents and listening in on the choice bits of gossip that could be plucked from the dull roar of the crowds.

True, most of it lacked the personal investment that made the castle gossip so endlessly entertaining, but the sheer variety made up for it in some respects, as did the novelty of the new surroundings.

Of course, she wasn't listening to people for the pleasure of it. She was getting no enjoyment out of this at all, it was all purely in case some tidbit surfaced that would require Master Jaune's attention.

She paused as she passed another clothing store. Not quite on par with the fashions back home, but reasonably priced for what it offered.

Which was all still far above what Master Jaune had ordered her to get.

Not that worded it that way. He was never one for orders, even with the lowliest of servants. He always asked for favors, or for help, instead. She couldn't exactly refuse those, either; he was nobility and she was merely a commoner after all, but it did make him much more personable than his sisters, or even the Queen herself.

His looks didn't hurt matters either, even outside the frilly dresses his sisters would sometimes force him into. Not that she'd ever dream of acting on it. Even if she did still have a body, the scandal would be unimaginable.

She turned away from the storefront and continued to drift down the street. She didn't bother to weave through the crowd, instead just simply floating through them. A few may have felt the occasional chill her passing left behind, but most continued on, oblivious to the ghost in their midst.

It was nice to be away from the academy, too. Sure, it was a grand institution with remarkable architecture, but it was too open for her tastes and more of a palace than any sort of defensive fortification. Defending the place would be a nightmare and a half against any determined attacker, and the whole place had too many places to hide and skulk.

When she stopped to think, the place reminded her of that rat bastard Logarius and his pet executioners. She felt a surge of aggression pump through her senses as she remembered that dreadful night, but she fought it down. It was easier now, centuries removed from the events and her last intake of blood.

She still missed feeling the warmth of the sun and the tickle of the wind on her skin.

She paused before another shop, this one a bit worse off than many and filled with cheap, mass produced rags civilized folk would barely call clothes.

Some of the pants were even torn already.

Savages.

She drifted through the doors and glanced around. One of the tellers rubbed his eyes and glanced to the door, but his gaze passed through her and on to the street.

She flipped through one of the racks nearby, looking for something nondescript, but concealing. There were a few candidates that fit the bill, though she'd hesitate to purchase any of them under normal circumstances; they positively reeked of animals.

She was roused from her scornful contemplation by an argument behind her.

"She said we had to do it today, not that we had to do it now."

"She wanted it done as soon as possible. What if the guy leaves before we get there?"

"Then we steal the book-"

"Cinder said-"

"Cinder's crazy. Dunno how, but having half of that shit is driving her nuts. Even if we stole the book, nothing would link it to us."

What sort of idiots- She turned to them and found a young, grey-haired man and… some sort of prostitute? She couldn't think of any other reason to bare so much skin. She was about to turn away when their argument caught her ear again.

"-She's got us on a literal ghost hunt, what are the odds of that going well?"

"Cinder has a plan, Merc. She's also loaded, so if you're really getting cold feet you could just ask for a raise."

Now that was worrying. She had no idea who these people were, but from the sound of it there was someone in town who knew about her and her fellows up at the Academy. That also meant they probably knew about Master Jaune as well, and who could say what such lowlifes might try.

Still, the Queen had forbidden them from killing unless Master Jaune's life was in immediate danger. Master Jaune would never outright order a murder, but if she explained the situation she was reasonably certain he would say something she could… creatively interpret.

Of course, that would require going back to the academy to talk to him, which meant she'd need some way of tracking the two. It wasn't among her skills, but gargoyles were reasonably competent trackers if they had a sample of the target's blood to work off.

She drew her blade, a short, razor-edged fascine, as she slid gently towards them. Would it be better to go for the girl, or the young man. The young man was the only one that had outright mentioned theft, but the baggy clothes he wore would make getting a decent sample unnoticed tricky. The girl, on the other hand, had plenty of exposed skin.

She edged closer, whispering a minor incantation that would slip the blade through any aura the girl might possess. She paused as the girl shivered and the boy cast a furtive glance around the shop. Subtle, but definitely a reaction to the arcane energies she was channeling. Another worrying sign.

The girl leaned closer to the boy, almost hissing at him as her arms cut short, emphatic gestures to emphasize whatever point she was making. Carefully, she slid the blade just along the rack, waiting for the girl reach out…

The girl hissed as her gesturing slid her forearm across the edge of the unseen blade.

"Aaah, dammit. Stupid store doesn't even dull their racks."

"Well, this is a place for the edgy."

"No, don't even start. Stay here if you like, but I am leaving to get this done. You can come with, or I'll tell Cinder you're slacking off again."

The pair left the store, still griping to each other as she stared at the blade. There wasn't much there, only a few droplets of blood.

She could vaguely recall how the blood made her feel, back in the past. When she'd still had a body, and in the hectic few weeks after she hadn't. The power it granted her, the unmatched speed and aggression.

She brought the blade closer, examining the red nectar. Really, she only needed a little for the gargoyles to track with. Maybe not even that much. It was tempting, oh so very tempting.

Maybe… Maybe just a taste.

To take the edge off.

/\/\/\/\

"I don't care if he's the teacher, he's wrong."

Pyrrha glanced at Jaune as they left the lecture hall.

"I… don't suppose you could be more specific?"

He waved vaguely.

"I mean all that stuff about old legends. He got the gist sure, but all the details were wrong."

Pyrrha felt herself smile a bit at Jaune's enthusiasm. He had opened up somewhat over the last few weeks, but by and large he was still pretty reserved. Which made these moments of boyish enthusiasm all the more endearing.

Not that she would ever try to draw them out.

"It probably doesn't matter, Jaune. He'll likely only test us on the big picture anyways."

Jaune shrugged as the team wandered ever close to the dining hall.

"Maybe, but still, so much of that was just… wrong!"

He paused to open the doors, allowing his team to step through before entering himself.

"Like that bit about skin walkers. No one has ever really believed they were grimm. It's just, uh, slang for people who use animal pelts to hide from grimm. Cowards."

Pyrrha heard Nora snort behind her.

"Woow, Jaune. All that info and respect. Keep talking and we might start thinking you're one of 'em."

Jaune chuckled at that as they sat at one of the long tables.

"Ha, I wouldn't worry about that."

They ate in silence for a few minutes before Ren broke the silence.

"It is rather odd. It's not hard to verify those stories if you bother to look into them. It's not like Professor Oobleck to preach faulty information."

Jaune shrugged in response.

"Well, it's not like the kingdom's hunters go out to the border kingdoms very often. Too many grimm too close to home to spare anyone for fact-finding."

That was another thing Pyrrha had gotten used to. Back in Mistral, such stories would have been considered legends at best, but her team seemed to take their existence as a matter of course. From the way Jaune spoke, she was inclined to believe that he, at least, thought they were true, but Ren always seemed to have just a slight touch of skepticism. Nora rarely commented, but Pyrrha was inclined to think that was more because she only cared whether or not she could hit them with Magnhild rather than any lack of knowledge.

They continued to chat for a bit, using lunch to unwind and relax before they trudged back to their dorm to work on the veritable mountains of work that awaited them.

"-and after the rescue, Ren and I have been together ever since. Well, not togeth-"

"That is not at all how we met."

"Ren! Where is your sense of high drama?"

Pyrrha stifled a small chuckle. So far, she'd heard 3 variations of how Nora and Ren had met. Ren hadn't confirmed a single one, to Nora's growing annoyance.

She took another bite of her meal as Nora launched another half-hearted assault on Ren, who steadfastedly ignored her in favor of his meal. She turned to Jaune.

"So, how about you? Any interesting stories from the frontier?"

It wasn't the most subtle way of getting information, but her father hadn't raised a politician.

"There's, uh, not really a whole lot to tell. Hunter family on the border lands, a lot of sisters. It was, uh, pretty uneventful."

And just like that, the walls snapped back up and Jaune was once again keeping his metaphorical distance. She supposed she couldn't really blame him, the team had been together for only a few weeks. They still had a few years together at Beacon, but she couldn't help but feel a little disappointment. Nora had been open, in her enthusiastic, borderline insane, way that made up for Ren's quiet nature. Her own history was practically a matter of public record, for all the good and ill that brought her.

She just couldn't figure out why Jaune was so evasive. True, he lacked a family name, but that sort of thing was pretty common in border kingdoms. He didn't seem to be on bad terms with his family, writing and receiving letters fairly regularly, so he probably hadn't been disowned. As far as she could see, he had nothing to hide.

Any further attempts to pry were cut short as team RWBY entered the hall. Pyrrha waved them over, not that they needed to when only a handful of people were present.

"So, Jaune, Weiss says you guys need a little help?" Ruby asked, sitting next to the boy in question.

His gaze flicked to Pyrrha briefly. He hadn't particularly liked the idea of bringing team RWBY in to help, but he hadn't rejected them either. If anything, he'd seemed more irritated Pyrrha hadn't asked him.

"Yeah. So, it turns out the school doesn't actually have people doing our laundry for us."

Ruby blinked in confusion as her teammates shared an unreadable glance.

"Uh, yeah? Pretty sure they mentioned that during orientation."

Jaune coughed, looking almost-but-not-quite sheepish, "Yeah, well, uh, none of us paid attention-"

Pyrrha could have sworn she heard Ren snort quietly at that.

"-so we just sort of left the dirty clothes out, and, uh, some _one_ has been doing them for us."

Weiss almost choked in anger. "Wait, so while I've been dumping everything in the wash, you've been getting-"

"Have they taken anything?" Blake interrupted, as Weiss continued to mutter to herself.

"No, which is what makes it weird," Pyrrha chimed in. "As near as we can tell, they take our clothes, wash them, iron them, and return them."

Now Ruby just looked confused. "So… what's the problem?"

"It's creepy," Weiss explained. "Like if they were stealing Pyrrha's panties to sell online, it would at least be understandable."

Jaune coughed, getting everyone's attention once more "Right, so the idea is to ambush whoever's doing this, maybe try to chase them somewhere and, uh, make sure they don't do it again. There's an unused classroom near the laundry room that would work, no windows and only one exit. It's just a matter of chasing them there."

They spent the next half hour hashing out a rough plan as they stared at a basic floor plan of the dorm building. The coming weekend was a minor holiday, which meant most of the students would be partying in town during the day. Nora would start the chase and the rest would keep the target from escaping. Once they'd hemmed him into the room, they would have a little chat.

Ideally, the perpetrator would leave the room alive and mostly intact.

It seemed like a good plan to Pyrrha, even if it was pretty vague on the details. Ruby and Weiss seemed to want something a bit more concrete, but Jaune was more focused on keeping the plan flexible. They relented, eventually, but Blake pointed out another concern.

"Right there, that area's a mess of blind corners. We could lose them pretty quickly."

Jaune shrugged. He didn't seem at all concerned about that.

"Eh, it's close to my area, and it'll be between you and Ruby. You two are probably the quickest ones here, and I'm pretty good at thinking on my feet."

He glanced over his shoulder for the upteenth time, probably making sure no one was eavesdropping.

"I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"


	8. Chapter 8-The Best Laid Plans

She paced in a side corridor, licking non-existent- yet still dry- lips. She could feel every slight breath of air over her skin, hear every sound made within a hundred feet. Her veins pulsed and surged with the fire of blood long absent. The subtle warmth of the sun on skin that had withered and died ages ago, the slight chill as she walked under a vent, she could feel it all again, for the first time in centuries.

And everywhere the pungent, seductive whiff of the living and the sweet ambrosia they held.

She licked her lips again, recalling the taste, as she glanced at the clock. Ten more minutes until she was supposed to go.

She tugged at the cheap clothing she was , rough, made en masse by machines and beasts with no regard for craftsmanship. Necessary to present a scapegoat and conceal her nature.

She started pacing again. She was overflowing with energy, with impatience and wrath, brought forth by the blood. It was still too early. Sitting around would accomplish nothing.

She'd go for a walk. Burn off this energy, take in more of the sensations before the blood wore off and they were replaced by that burning, aching need.

Gods she needed a drink.

Something rich and plentiful.

/\/\/\/\/\

Nora sat at her desk, a blank sheet of paper in front of her and a set of homework instructions pulled up on her scroll. To any casual observer she would seem to be just another student, stuck at school while everyone else was in town partying.

In actuality, she was in what Ren called her 'defusal state'. Not that he ever actually said that, but he'd recognize the similarities to how she was when it came time to disassemble her bombs. So if he were the type to giver her moods cutesy names, which he wasn't, that's what he'd call it. Probably.

Either way, her attention was firmly locked on the doorway in the corner of her vision, where the edge of Jaune's laundry bin was just barely visible. Her part of the plan was simple.

When that edge disappeared from sight, she would blitz the hallway and cut loose with her lighter, probably-building-safe ordnance. Technically, she was supposed to herd the culprit into the waiting ambush, but really, as long as they caught the maybe-guy-maybe-girl she didn't think it would matter that much.

Her eye flicked back to the clock on her scroll as it chimed noon. Wait why did she- She flicked her eyes back to the door just in time to see the corner disappear.

Oh, that wouldn't do at all.

Half a second later she skidded into the hall, launching a spread of grenades as she caught her first glimpse of the intruder, fairly tall and garbed in a black hoodie and pants.

And a girl, surprisingly.

Damn, now she owed Ren twenty.

To her credit, the interloper didn't even flinch as the concussion rounds detonated in front of her. Instead she dropped the bin and drew a wickedly serrated dagger as she whirled to face the source of the assault.

Nora could tell something was off. Something about the face-area of the woman was weird, not quite right. In the back of her skull, a faint itch scratched at the most primitive portions of her mind, warning her that something was very wrong with the situation.

It was a moot point, as Nora was already airborne, leaping at the intruder as Magnhild thirsted for aura.

She was not entirely surprised when Magnhild's head tore _through_ the figure, scattering the cheap disguise they wore. She was not surprised when they counterattacked, the vicious blade whipping through the air where her face had been moments before.

She would, however, later confess to a certain amount of shock when the figure dodged _through_ the wall behind them.

/\/\/\/\/\

As she broke contact, she could almost feel her centuries-dead heart hammering a rapid fire beat.

Blood and dust, it had been ages since she last had a proper fight.

Stepping lightly, she dashed around the apprentice before phasing through the wall behind her. To the girl's credit, she sensed the attack before it came and just barely managed to evade, her eyes darting wildly to and fro as she tried to discern where the attack came from.

Idly, the spirit considered going easy on the poor girl. Mortals had a hard enough time around her kind after all.

She decided against it as the girl fired another spread of grenades down the corridor. Ineffective against her as they were, the after effects were still unpleasant. She darted through another wall and emerged a few rooms behind the apprentice. She slammed one of the doors shut before darting past the girl as she whirled to confront the source of the noise. To her credit, there was none of the random firing the spirit expected from a rookie.

She decided to hold back her next attack and watch the girl's reactions. Hunt for any weak point or misstep.

Let the fear build up.

The girl advanced warily down the corridor a few more paces, her eyes wide and flicking to and fro as they searched for any sign of the attacker. The girl threw a quick glance over her shoulder as one arm dropped from her weapon to fish out some small device or another.

It didn't matter, she'd left an opening.

The spirit surged towards the young girl, her blade cutting a vicious arc through the air. She twisted the blade slightly as she recalled the girl's identity, turning what would have been a fatal strike into one that didn't quite break through the girl's aura. Master Jaune might not want the girl killed after all.

Wait, there was something she was supposed to be doing, wasn't there?

She couldn't remember.

/\/\/\/\/\

Nora threw herself down the corridor even as she felt that _thing's_ blade scrape across the aura on her back. Damn, that had been a heavy blow, and she doubted she could take another like it.

Her mind raced as she tucked into a roll, trying to avoid the inevitable follow-up.

The plan was shot to hell. It had been designed with the idea that the pseudo-thief was, you know, human. Or at least a faunus.

Not some sort of vicious, evil, ghostly _thing_ that should not exist.

Hell with it, she needed help.

She darted down a side corridor as she came out of the roll, fishing out her scroll as she went. A few quick gestures, and she'd fired off a message to Jaune. Only a few characters, but he'd get it.

She dropped her scroll as she caught a faint hint of movement ahead, and she jumped back to avoid the thing's strike. It was getting a little easier now. She still, couldn't see it, but she could at least see how it moved.

Which made no sense at all, but she wasn't going to question it right now.

Darting back out into the main corridor, Nora sprinted for the far end. She wouldn't exactly have time to warn them properly, but Blake was a big girl. She could handle running headfirst into a vengeful spirit.

Right?

/\/\/\/\/\

It was annoyed now.

The thrill of the hunt had started to fade. Its quarry should have been more than satisfying. Agile, quick witted, and well armed. Yet something was holding her back. She couldn't kill the girl, not yet, but why…

She had orders. There was a plan. Yes, Master Jaune had told her… something.

It shadowed the girl's panicked flight down the corridor. No, wait, her pace was rushed and hurried, a product of fear, but she was clearly trying to make for a specific goal. She likely had help, which meant that it would have to…

She needed to...

It could barely think. The racing pulse of nonexistent blood through its veins recalled the taste of the real thing and drove coherent thought from the mind.

It needed to calm down. It needed another sip, enough to calm the nerves and let it think, let it plan. It had a purpose here, it had an objective but what?

The quarry ducked into a nearby room, and it pursued, darting through the wall to head her off.

She emerged in some sort of disused storage room, just in time to see the quarry dragging another back out into the hall. It attempted to follow, annoyed by the blatant and clumsy attempt at misdirection, only to be forced back by another spread of those damned bombs.

A growl tore from its throat. To hell with entertainment, it wanted to end this now.

/\/\/\/\

"Hey, Ren?"

"Hm?"

"Just got a text from Nora."

"Time to move?"

"...I have no idea. It's a… picture of a blanket with holes in it, chocolate fudge, and… some sort of screaming face?"

Ren frowned in thought as he leaned over Jaune's shoulder to look at the scroll. He nodded once, then stood, swapping out the magazines in his pistols for a different pair.

"Definitely trouble. Call her."


End file.
